


Moral Deadzone

by unknown_knowns



Series: Star Crossed [1]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe, Corruption, Drama, F/F, Lightsaber Battles, Moral Dilemmas, Slow Romance, Temptation, honestly no clue how to tag this without spoiling the bejesus out of it, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-01 00:33:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8599954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknown_knowns/pseuds/unknown_knowns
Summary: Maxara Caulfield is a young Jedi.A protector of the weak and defenseless.But her training was difficult, and required her to sever ties with friends and family.And when her childhood friend is stricken with a terminal disease, she has to wonder. Meanwhile, a stranger offers her an expedient solution.A potential cure.How many lives is the loyalty of a Jedi worth?What does it mean to be a good person?





	1. Deal

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, friends.
> 
> This is basically a Star Wars story with some Life is Strange expies. I focus on neither canon in particularly extreme detail, and play pretty fast and loose with both. 
> 
> So this might not be for you if looking for a very strict, canon-compliant interpretation of Jedi, force powers, etc. 
> 
> On the other hand, I think it should be pretty approachable to fans of either, and especially fans of both, so long as you're willing to accept my interpretations of things. 
> 
> Also, I have a few chapters planned for this story, and at least two other stories planned for this series. Reception will probably determine how long and fleshed-out it ends up being overall. Shipping will be a thing, but it'll take some time to get there since ... you'll see.
> 
> As always, I'm happy to receive comments, and will try to read/reply to all of them.

Max wondered if this is what denial felt like.

She was in a hospital.

On her home world.

Away from where she _should_ be.

Skirting her current duties.

But she was here anyway, since this opportunity couldn’t be passed up.

She was outside one of the hospital’s rooms.

Just dreading on entering.

If she didn’t, then at least some part of her could convince her that her best friend wasn’t actually in the hospital.

If she didn’t, then at least some part of he could convince her that she wasn’t the worst friend in the world.

If she didn’t, she could hurriedly make it back to her duties and pretend like nothing happened.

She could pretend that she wasn’t prioritizing time with her best friend over the Jedi Order.

She could pretend that she wasn’t aggressively and carelessly disobeying one of the core tenants.

No friends outside of the order.

But then she closed her eyes and sighed.

This had been quietly eating away at her for a few weeks now.

Since she had paid for the information about her best friend.

But she was already here.

She already had the visitor’s pass in the form of this data pad.

There really wasn’t any point in hesitating any further.

So she entered the room.

 

Max wasn’t sure what she was expecting the inside of a hospital room to be.

But this felt too sterile.

The walls felt too close.

The smell was just a little too unsettling and _not right_.

The air felt so heavily processed that it hardly even resembled air anywhere else.

All of this dread and anxiety wasn’t that usual for her, these days.

Years ago she had learned the ways to balance and center herself.

But for some stupid reason, she found it impossible to fully balance herself spiritually when her best friend was on her mind.

She wasn’t herself, right now.

“Well well. If it isn’t Maxara Caulfield.”

That voice kicked her out of her thoughts.

It made her gently smile, if nothing else.

She looked to the lone bed on the far side of the room.

And met her friend’s gaze.

“If it isn’t Chloe Price.”

Max felt a lot of her anxieties melt away, seeing the beaming, bright features of her best friend.

She had long, blonde-ish hair, and bright blue eyes.

In their childhood, she had more energy than she knew what to do with.

So she was jittery and excitable, playful and teasing.

She was basically Max’s only childhood friend of any note.

But some of that felt different, now.

Being bed-ridden made her features seem more lethargic than Max remembered.

Her voice was a bit less pitched and playful.

Her eyes danced a bit less whenever Max’s own met them.

Her smile felt less dangerous and more collected.

Maybe Max was just imagining things.

Chloe sighed.

“Well, I can see you haven’t changed, at least. I’m going to have to pull you by the hair through a conversation about why you’re here, aren’t I?”

Max blinked.

_Oops._

She had been thinking, and the silence had gone on for too long, now.

At least that sounded like the playful childhood friend she knew.

“Oh, um.”

Max then harshly sighed, and quickly looked around the room to find a chair.

She pulled it up alongside Chloe’s bed, and propped down on it.

Max was tempted to try and hold one of Chloe’s hands, but she didn’t know how appropriate that would be.

For now, she just kept them in her lap, and tried to smile brightly.

“I was just … thinking.”

Chloe laughed.

Max always heard so much joy and happiness in her laugh.

She liked hearing it, even when she brought it out accidentally.

“Looks like not even the Jedi can teach you how to focus.”

Max groaned.

Chloe’s bed had some arm-rests – or something – along the sides of it. Max decided to plop her head down sideways on it.

“I’m normally better, I swear. I just … I haven’t been the same since I found out you were here.”

Max could see Chloe’s expression falter.

Chloe’s hand raised up for just a few seconds.

When they were younger, Chloe would sometimes pet at her hair, whenever Max would get a bit too anxious or nervous.

They both knew how deeply relaxing it was.

Max sat back up.

“Is it bad?”

Chloe’s expression soured further.

Her hand fell down, and she looked away from Max, to the one window in the room.

“What do you care?”

_Owch._

Max closed her eyes and sighed.

“Chloe. You know I ---“

Chloe grunted and interrupted,

“You didn’t have a choice in being sent off to training, I know, but you could have kept in touch, still.”

Max went quiet, for a little while.

Could she tell Chloe that she was defying the order to be here with her?                                                                                                    

After some hesitation, Max decided she didn’t want to lie to her friend.

“Jedi are not allowed to have friends outside of the order.”

Chloe flinched at the news and closed her eyes.

Eventually, she looked back to Max, and opened them again.

Max couldn’t quite make out her facial expression.

Thoughtful, maybe.

Or remorseful?

“Then why are you here?”

Max frowned.

“Because you’re in a hospit ---“

Chole interrupted again,

“I didn’t get in here yesterday, Max. Try again.”

Max sighed.

Chloe was always pretty good at seeing through her.

She probably had a lot of time to think about Max not being in contact with her, too.

“Fine, alright, you got me. Because I had an assignment here and wanted to check up on you.”

Max looked down.

“It seemed like the easiest way to still try and be friends with you without making anyone suspicious.”

Chloe groaned,

“Still be friends …”

Max looked back up to her.

Chloe had her hands on her face and were dragging them downwards.

She was quiet until her hands had long finished their forceful descent.

“Five years is a long time, Max. I really missed you.”

Her voice sounded distant.

Max smiled sadly.

“I missed you too.”

She sighed,

“I missed my family, too… I missed everything.”

Chloe’s face did a kind of funny contorting thing.

Her emotions were always an open book.

She eventually calmed her face down to just look slightly distressed.

After a minute or two of processing, anyway.

“I … didn’t think of what it would be like for you. Are you okay?”

This had Max laughing gently, despite everything.

“You’re literally in a hospital bed and you’re asking _me_ if _I’m_ okay?”

But a Max that was laughing was an improvement, and Chloe was smiling now that she had gotten that effect.

“Dude, hospital bed’s real chill. I get hella sleep and everything.”

Chloe put up her hands behind her head and wildly exaggerated shuffling around in her bed to emphasize it.

“See? Super comfy.”

Chloe’s playful gesticulations and exaggerated movements were always endearing to Max.

Max just nodded.

“Okay, maybe the bed isn’t too bad.”

She felt her smile slip, slightly.

“I’m okay. My Masters say the isolation gives the mind resolve. It enables it to um …”

Max looked to the side,

“Focus,”

She then looked back to Chloe,

“Better, and stuff. But …”

Max frowned.

Chloe was listening carefully.

“I didn’t want to be a Jedi to become some kind of emotionless monk. I wanted to help people. I just ---“

Max sighed again and looked back down to the floor.

There was a quiet moment.

Max didn’t have her words.

Chloe was considering.

Eventually, Chloe shifted on her bed again, and reached a hand out to grasp at one of Max’s own.

Max broke one of her hands free from clasping with the other to allow it.

She shamelessly interlocked their fingers.

“Yeah, well. You’re helping me, now. So you’re doing a good job.”

Chloe squeezed the hand.

Max squeezed right back.

She just wanted a moment of quiet, with her eyes closed.

With Chloe’s hand in hers.

Just appreciating that Chloe was still trying to cheer her up after all this time.

And that she somehow knew what to say to have that effect, still.

After what felt like a long while, Chloe spoke up again.

Her voice was louder and had its usual playful bite.

“So are you officially a badass now, or _just_ a badass junior?”

Max looked up with a smile.

“Who told you the official labels the order uses? I’m impressed.”

Chloe’s grin went sly.

“Oh, I have my ways. Now don’t you dodge. _Spill_.”

Max carefully ran her thumb along what of Chloe’s hand she could while she spoke.

“I finished my initial training a few weeks ago. I’m … something like an apprentice, now. It’s called a Padawan.”

Chloe hummed thoughtfully.

“And do the Pah-dah-wayn ---“

“--- Pah-dah-wahn ---“

Max quickly interrupted, to which Chloe just rolled her eyes,

“Pah-dah- _wahn_ ,” Chloe over-emphasized it for Max’s sake, “have those badass laser swords? And where’s your robe, anyway?”

Max chuckled and broke her hand free from Chloe’s, finally.

“Jedi don’t wear robes, Chloe. That’s just some silly legend; we don’t want to stand out in a crowd. That’s why I’m wearing normal civilian clothes.”

Chloe groaned and rolled her eyes again.

“Can’t you let me have anything, dude? Next you’re going to tell me that there’s no laser swords.”

Max was still smiling as she carefully unzipped her jacket and pulled out the device Chloe had harped on a few times, now.

“It’s called a _light saber_ , Chloe. But it’s not very impressive when it’s turned off.”

Max held it nakedly in her palm.

Despite her best efforts to down-play it, Chloe’s eyes still lit up at the sight of it.

It was like she lost five years in five seconds and was a young kid, again.

“Shut. Up. They’re real! No way!”

She then got a very dangerous grin on her face, and slowly looked back up to Max.

“Let me hold it.”

Max frowned.

“Chloe – you can’t just –“

Chloe pouted in a terribly manipulative way.

Her lips quivered.

Her eyes softened.

She whined like some kind of kicked puppy.

Like Max was inflicting pain upon her by not indulging her impulsive side so recklessly.

After a few seconds of the gaze, Max realized she had gotten no better at dealing with it.

She grunted and looked away, holding it out further, over the bed.

“Fine, just --- for like a minute. I’m _so_ dead if anyone finds out.”

Max was looking away, but even still, she could see Chloe punching the air in front of her out of victory.

“Score.”

She quickly took it from Max’s hand.

Max, for her part, leaned back in her chair and looked back to Chloe.

Just to observe her child-like fascination with the most widely-known signifier of the Jedi Order.

When Max was younger, she too had a fixation for the light saber.

Not just for the weapon itself, but for the symbolism it represented.

There was no quicker way to identify a Jedi, and no more evident marker of their philosophy.

It was primarily a defensive weapon, with severely restrained range.

Modern blasters could hit clear across the planet with incredible speed and accuracy.

Any junky kid off the streets could learn to use a blaster pistol in the order of days.

In comparison, a light saber was almost hilariously antiquated.

It took years of careful study and practice to use correctly.

And even during use, there were tons of techniques and mindful approaches that needed to be utilized to make the most out of the weapon.

But they were rare.

Unique.

Precious.

Intimidating.

Their most distinguishing feature, the retractable laser blade portion, made a distinctive sound when it was turned on and operational.

Often, this alone would be enough to bring a conflict to a close.

If not, a well-timed deflection of a blaster shot or two would end the day of any foolish aggressor.

All without the Jedi having fired anything.

All with the aggressor bringing all the harm onto themselves for being the aggressor.

They were, of course, quite dangerous when handled inappropriately.

This was part of the reason Max really shouldn’t have given it to Chloe.

But Chloe was just examining the hilt and handle, with a surprising amount of care and reverie for her.

After a minute or two, she suddenly paused entirely.

Her eyes were fixated on one particular spot of the handle.

Max was confused for just a second.

Then ---

Her eyes widened, and she compelled the light saber back to her hand with the connection she had with the force.

This technique felt mostly like a party trick, but her Masters assured her that it would be a live-saving technique at some point.

For now, it was just a very efficient and quick way to get it out and away from Chloe’s eyes.

“Um. There’s nothing to see, there.”

Max knew perfectly well that there _was_ something to see, engraved in her light saber’s handle, near the bottom.

But Chloe didn’t need to see that, now.

She stuffed it back into her jacket and zipped back up.

Chloe, for her part, was still looking thunderstruck.

Her mouth was hanging open, a little stupidly.

Max sighed.

She probably saw it.

A distraction was in order.

Max rushed her mind for some other topic, and the first thing that came to mind ---

“So uh. What are you in the hospital for, anyway?”

It was a pretty fucking awkward topic but she hoped it was unusual enough to kick Chloe out of her stunned silence.

And it was.

She blinked, and closed her mouth.

She sighed.

“Some _bullshit_ thing. Doctors say it’s terminal. I don’t care.”

Her voice was quieter, and she looked back out to the window.

Max felt the color drain out of her world.

 _Terminal_?

Chloe was going to die?

Diseases that still took life were incredibly rare.

Even cancerous agents could be carefully controlled and reversed.

“T-Terminal?”

Max hated how uneven her voice sounded when it came out.

She swallowed, and tried to steady it,

“How long …?”

Chloe was quiet for a long while.

Eventually,

“Like a year or something. I don’t know. I try not to think about it.”

Max regretted bringing this up now.

Chloe sounded pathetic and miserable.

Max felt pathetic and miserable, too.

She felt like she was going to cry, and she wasn’t even the one who had the affliction.

Max steeled herself to not cry, and reached one of her hands out to interlock it with one of Chloe’s again.

She squeezed tightly.

She didn’t really know what to say, though.

So she just said nothing at all.

And watched Chloe staring out the window.

Contemplating her own life, probably.

Eventually, something on Max’s person beeped angrily, and caused both of them to jolt in surprise.

Max’s free hand quickly patted herself down to quiet it.

Then, begrudgingly, she released Chloe’s hand, and stood up.

“Well. I have to go, now. But…”

She closed her eyes.

She had made up her mind in that quiet time.

“I’m going to be here, more often, with you. One way or the other. We’re going to live ten years in the one you’ve got left.”

Max wasn’t sure where the resolve in her voice came from; she wasn’t that familiar with it.

Neither was Chloe, from the way she blinked, and looked up to Max.

She looked confused for a few seconds.

“Are you s ---“

“--- Yes.”

Chloe bit her lip.

Max’s response came out immediately, and her resolve didn’t falter at all.

“But the J ---“

“--- I’ll deal with it.”

Chloe still looked uncertain.

Max sighed and closed her eyes.

“Chloe, please. I made a mistake in not talking to you sooner. I’m not going to …”

 _Fuck_.

Max’s voice waivered.

Those were probably tears.

Max raised a hand up to shield her eyes and rub at the spots on either side of her eyebrows for a second or two.

She steadied her voice and brought her hand back down.

“Let me do what I can to make it up to you?”

 Her voice sounded better, now, at least.

Chloe was quiet for a few seconds.

Then she just smiled wide, and warmly.

It wasn’t a smile Max was familiar with.

It didn’t feel playful, or dangerous, and she couldn’t see any teeth.

It was just warm and genuine.

Earnest.

“O-okay.”

Chloe’s own voice had its faltering, but she seemed more at ease with it,

“I’ll hold you to t-that, then, Max.”

Max smiled now, too.

They shared it for what felt like a long time, but then Max remembered herself.

“I’ll be back soon. I _promise_.”

Max didn’t miss, but didn’t know how to process, a little bit of blush on Chloe’s face, as she turned on her heel and walked out of the room.

 

Thanks to the time reminder, Max successfully got to her duties and completed them on time.

When she returned to the planet she lived on now, her Master was not outwardly suspicious of any misgivings.

It was all very routine.

But it wasn’t, really.

No part of her routine involved learning that her best childhood friend was on borrowed time.

And that as she spent time doing frivolous things for the Jedi, her friend’s death clock ticked towards zero.

It was a disquieting thought.

Max needed to really focus and rebalance herself.

She excused herself from the Jedi temple she spent most of her time at and made her way to a nearby forest.

The temple was in the middle of the largest city on this planet.

This planet was at the core of the republic – the government in control over this planet, and quite a few surrounding systems.

It was, consequentially, quite popular.

Sometimes, she needed a kind of peace she just couldn’t get in the city.

Not with all of the people.

Not with all of the technology.

Not with all of the activity.

And the noise.

She took a ride to the edge of the city, and just walked.

And walked.

And walked some more.

She walked until there was a subtle ache in her feet.

She walked until she heard no subtle whine from electronics.

She walked until there was only nature surrounding her.

And nothing else.

But she walked a bit further still, after that, to her favorite clearing.

She had a little bit of camping equipment set up all of the way out here.

There was a fire pit.

A felled log for sitting on.

An unassuming tent.

This was her home away from home, when she need the peace.

And boy did she need the peace, right now.

Max stretched before sitting down on the log and trying to put herself at ease.

She closed her eyes and carefully controlled her breathing to be as slow as it could.

Balancing one’s emotional state was tremendously important for the kind of focus that the Jedi required.

Typically, it didn’t require this severe of an escape for Max to achieve it.

Until she learned about Chloe’s predicament, she could do it just fine with a few seconds and a bowed head.

But things were different, now.

Little tendrils of doubt and uncertainty kept tugging her away from that inner-peace she didn’t know she was so desperately fond and needy of.

It was hard to appreciate it until it was gone.

But at least Chloe wasn’t dead.

At least she was willing to work with Max, however much time they had left.

At least she wasn’t outwardly mad at her.

At least they could still be friends.

Despite everything, these thoughts had her smiling softly.

She was able to find her center and balance herself.

 

Max wasn’t sure how much later it was when a voice interrupted her.

“Something is troubling you.”

She frowned.

Carefully, she stood up, patted herself off, opened her eyes, and looked in the direction of the voice.

It belonged to a hooded stranger, wearing unassuming, yet very large and ill-fitting robes.

His face was obscured by the hood.

As were most distinguishing features.

“You again.”

Max knew this voice, even if took her a little while to recall the memory.

But her frown didn’t go anywhere.

“What do you want?”

She tried to keep her voice as pleasant as it could be, in this situation, but there was a certain amount of forcefulness she put behind it.

They weren’t friends.

And his timing was more than a little suspicious.

He chuckled quietly.

His voice sounded a lot older than Max remembered it.

“I wish to help you. Your friend’s disease has a cure.”

Her frown became more severe.

But then she sighed, and remembered herself.

She couldn’t let her frustration get the better of her.

She was suspicious of how he knew so much, but that part of her was quickly, and immediately overwhelmed by the other parts that were jumping for joy at a potential cure.

Still, she couldn’t let that on.

Her voice was calm and even.

“Her disease has no cure.”

She spoke as a matter of fact.

He chuckled again, and took a few steps closer.

Max considered reaching for her light saber to threaten him away.

But he wasn’t posing an imminent threat.

“It does, but not by traditional means.”

Max crossed her arms and turned to face him, fully.

“What do you mean?”

He took a few steps closer, still.

“It is an ancient disease beyond the understanding of modern medicine or machinery. It is a disease that has claimed the nearest and dearest to me, and only after their deaths did I find it was curable.”

He breathed in.

“The Jedi Order have both the materials and the knowledge to cure it. But they hide it away. They are afraid.”

Max kept her composure.

“You do not know of what you speak. The Jedi are sworn to protect and help the innocent, not scorn them by hiding away knowledge.”

He was quiet for a few seconds.

“And yet, that is _not_ what they do, is it? Your teachings have already hurt the closest to you. Are they not the _exact_ kind of innocent you should be protecting?”

Max felt some of her concentration slipping.

That was a deep, personal cut.

She frowned.

“You _lie_. The Jedi teach these things for the good of everyone, not just individuals.”

Her voice came out just a little bit uneven.

Another moment of silence.

“And have my teachings been for naught? Do you have no trust for me at all? I taught you what you needed to know to hide your emotions about your friend from your Masters. This frustration the Jedi keep trying to lock away in you cannot hide forever.”

She gritted her teeth.

Some of what he said was unquestionably true.

The only time she had seen him prior was years ago.

About half way through her childhood training.

Thoughts of Chloe had come up, and were distracting her once more.

Her Masters were unpleased, and sent her into the forest to meditate, to purify her thoughts.

This stranger found her in this very same place and taught her how to channel her frustration to keep her mind clouded.

It felt … better.

She even excelled with the various bullshit her Masters required out of her when she did that.

And they were none-the-wiser of her technique, nor from whence it came.

She kicked at some dirt.

She hated the part of her that felt that he was right about all of this, somehow.

If she thought about it, she had already failed long ago in being unable to purge Chloe out of her life for good.

And now, that connection was making it much more difficult to be the Jedi that was wanted out of her.

She then just sighed.

“I have my reasons to be suspicious of you. But you are right, you did teach me something valuable. I suppose I can give you a chance. Where is the cure?”

He took a few steps closer, still.

He was a few feet away, now, and somehow, she still couldn’t make out anything of his face.

What’s more, she was suddenly aware of for the first time that he was a force user.

She could feel the connection to the force other people had when she was in their proximity.

When balanced, Jedi had a more sensitivity affinity for the force connection others had.

The closer the proximity, the stronger the two connections would intermingle and play off one another.

It was one of the ways Jedi could sense emotions and hesitations in others.

She felt such a connection in him now, but it was not a kind of presence she was used to feeling.

His connection was vivid.

Exciting.

Deep.

Electrifying.

Her heart rate was accelerating and the hairs along her body were standing up just with this feeling.

It was almost overwhelming.

He continued,

“It is in a deep part of the Jedi Temple here, in a room they call the Garden of Eden. The Jedi house several uncomfortable truths about their order there … and it is where Jedi apprentice go to become confirmed as Jedi masters.”

She frowned.

She hadn’t ever heard of this.

And all the knowledge he had was seriously starting to bother her.

She had to know.

“Just … who are you?”

Max hated how her voice came out a little breathless.

His presence was still somewhat overwhelming, and she hadn’t anticipated the effect it would have on her ability to speak.

He chuckled again.

“I am but an old man who gave everything to the order, only to be betrayed by what they kept from me. And now I am doing what I can to prevent others from sharing that same fate, before it is too late.”

She shook her head.

“I want a name.”

He shook his own.

“I do not know yet that I can trust you. Follow my advice. Seek out the Garden of Eden. Find the information about the cure, and come back here. Then we can talk. Then I will tell you what I want of you in return for this information.”

Of course, there was a catch.

She groaned.

“So you _do_ want a favor out of all of this.”

He shook his head again.

“I do not want _petty_ _favors_. I want _allies_. You would help me because you would agree with my ideas. Not because you are obligated to.”

She still frowned, though.

It sounded an awful lot like this information came at a price.

Max then just sighed.

She took some steps away from him and went to sit back down on the log.

She closed her eyes to consider his proposition.

And if he was to be trusted.

He did help her earlier, after all.

“Why do the ---“

She started to ask another question, but by the time she opened her eyes to look back at him, he was gone.

She probably should have expected that.

Max just stared at the grass under her feet for a while.

 

Later that night, Max returned to her small, modest apartment, close to the temple.

Her clothes came off quickly and she couldn’t have gotten into the shower any more hastily.

She wanted the hot waters to distract her away from the complexity her life had suddenly taken on today.

Just for that short while, the waters were enough.

But later, when she was staring at her own blue eyes and combing through her own dark brown hair and staring at her own persistent freckles, the thoughts all came back to her.

All the conflicts and all the threads.

Chloe.

The order.

The mysterious stranger.

Without the stranger, she might have been expelled from training _entirely_.

His technique of channeling her frustration allowed her to defy the most severe of restrictions the Jedi had.

She wasn’t sure she could ever be the emotionless monk that they wanted out of her.

But she could _seem_ like one when it clouded their ability to detect these emotions in her.

And here he was _again_ , offering to help her _again_.

And _again_ , he was helping her with something that put her at tremendous variance with the Order.

Maybe it would have been better if she had well and truly cut Chloe out of her life for good.

But what he said earlier kept coming back to her.

Haunting, almost.

If she had continued to keep Chloe in the dark, Chloe would have eventually just died, thinking her best friend abandoned her.

Is that what Max wanted to do as a Jedi?

Is that truly what being a good person meant?

Even if it had this emotional toll on her body, Max couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that he was right about all of this.

From the way he spoke, Max assumed he was some kind of former Jedi Master, who had been in a similar situation to where she was, now.

Max hated how relatable she found that situation.

How she probably would be doing something similar, if Chloe ended up dying, and Max ended up regretting that death.

Damn it.

Max sighed and leaned over her bathroom counter.

This was so damn complicated.

Max thought that out of all the possible professions she could have, Jedi would be the least difficult on her morality.

Yet here she was, stuck in a branch in her life, with no easy decision to make, and two compelling arguments for a way forward.

Maybe she was fretting over this for nothing.

Maybe he was wrong, or mislead, himself.

Maybe she’d go into there and find _nothing,_ at all.

And certainly, nothing relating to her friend’s mysterious illness.

Max had a feeling she’d find out one way, or another.

If nothing else, then at least for Chloe.

If Chloe died while Max had a lead for a cure she didn’t follow up on …

Max wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle that kind of guilt.

She decided to stop thinking about it, for now.

 

Max finished drying off and the rest of her business in the bathroom.

She retrieved her light saber from her jacket, and made her way to her bed.

She tossed it on there before putting on some underwear.

She didn’t like sleeping naked.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and found her saber once again.

She hunched over to stare at it. She ran her fingers along the metal.

And then, with a deep sigh, she carefully turned the handle around to the back side of it.

Jedi were encouraged to personalize their light saber.

Usually this amounted to just picking out the style of the handle and the color of the laser blade that came out, but there was nothing forbidding any further customization.

A Jedi’s light saber was a deeply personal item, and it would never be the subject of scrutiny of others.

So she had carved something into hers.

A little heart, with “M + C” in the center.

Max ran thumb over the engraving once more.

 

If nothing else, then at least for Chloe.

Max would try to find out more, for her.

It was the least Max could do.


	2. Breaking Point

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max spends more time with Chloe.
> 
> Max finds out something she didn't really want to.
> 
> Max is surprised by her powers.
> 
> The mysterious stranger returns to make good on his deal.

Max was resolved to find out more about the cure, but didn’t act immediately.

She figured she needed _some_ kind of plan.

When morning came around, she still didn’t have a concrete plan in mind.

But this was one of her “off” days.

Normally, these days were allotted so that she could meditate and better ensure the health of her spirituality.

Max wasn’t going to use her day for meditation and reflection, though.

With everything that happened yesterday still quite fresh in her mind, she got dressed.

And made her way to the space port.

 

She was back in Chloe’s hospital before she knew it.

Max didn’t normally like space ports or the crowded passenger ships, but this time felt a little bit different.

She wasn’t flying around the universe to do some dull task, like verify if a child had any meaningful force sensitivity and would be appropriate for training.

She was going to see her re-minted best friend.

The door to Chloe’s room opened obediently with the visitor’s pass.

Max really shouldn’t have been surprised that Chloe was still asleep.

Max was smiling as she carefully lifted a chair and pulled it back to the side of Chloe’s bed.

When they were younger, Chloe always had a habit of sleeping in pretty late.

She’d always keep them up later at night, too.

Playing games.

Listening to music.

Watching scary movies.

The first one to flinch had to buy the other a candy bar with their allowance.

Max crossed her arms on the railing along Chloe’s bed and rested her head there.

She could wait out another hour or two for her to wake up naturally.

Some time to think about her plan and what she’d do if it worked would be useful right now, anyway.

Some time to convince herself further that she was making the right decision, out of all of this.

And that the rules of the Jedi Code were meant to be broken, somehow.

She was more tired than she thought, though.

After only a few minutes, she fell asleep.

 

The next thing Max was aware of was a hand in her hair.

She murmured contently.

This gesture always felt very nice to her, and was always tremendously relaxing.

She exhaled deeply.

But then her cognition caught up, and she groaned softly.

She sat up and rubbed at one of her own eyes, attempting to blink away the fatigue induced by being awoken prematurely.

Of course, it was Chloe who had awoken her.

“You’re back.”

Max wasn’t sure if Chloe’s tone was surprised or not.

It was uncharacteristically soft and gentle.

Just a little bit above a whisper.

Max cleared her throat.

She thought it’d help her speak more clearly so soon after waking up.

“Yeah.”

Max smiled.

“I said I’d be here for you more often, didn’t I?”

Chloe smiled as well, but then she frowned.

But then she smiled again.

But then she frowned again.

It almost made Max giggle, but she had more self-control than that.

“What about the Jedi stuff?”

Max closed her eyes and sighed.

“I said I’d take care of it.”

She opened her eyes again.

“Can you please just trust me?”

Chloe opened her mouth, and hesitated, for a few seconds.

“I just don’t want you to throw away the last five years of your life.”

Max flinched, but nodded carefully.

“I don’t want to, either.”

She wasn’t entirely sure if it qualified as a lie right now, or not.

Since she was planning on sneaking into the temple to go where she wasn’t supposed to, to find a cure that if the stranger was to be believed would put her at even greater variance with the Order.

That wasn’t something someone did if they were the kind of person to be able to say that in earnest.

But it didn’t feel like a lie coming out, either.

Max continued,

“Today is kind of like a free day for me. I can do what I want.”

She smiled wide again.

“And I want to be here, right now.”

This made Chloe smile as well.

They shared it for a few seconds.

Chloe then sat up. She carefully extracted herself from her bed.

Max blinked, but stood up with her.

“You’re not bedridden?”

Chloe scoffed,

“Ain’ nothin’ that’d keep me in bed, dude.”

Max didn’t realize how much she genuinely missed her friend’s care-free, above-it-all attitude.

It was such a refreshing change from the stoic people who largely comprised the Order.

Chloe only had on a hospital gown.

She slowly walked over to the window at the side of her room to look out it.

Max followed her, to stand right by her.

Neither one really needed to ask for permission as their hands closest to one another interlocked and gently swayed from side to side.

Quiet.

There wasn’t actually all that much interesting to look at through this window.

They were still in a city, after all.

About the only thing to be seen for miles all around were massively-tall buildings and a variety of sky cars.

But watching the flow of traffic was oddly relaxing in of itself.

It was enough to be consuming while they just enjoyed the quiet moment with each other.

Eventually,

“Max …”

Chloe’s voice sounded soft, again.

Max looked sideways to her, away from the window.

“Yeah?”

Max’s voice came out soft, too.

Chloe met her gaze.

“This disease.”

Max bit her lip.

This was a difficult topic, earlier.

Chloe looked to the window before back to Max,

“There’s … rumors all over the ‘net that the Jedi were the ones who created and spread it.”

The news should have been surprising to Max.

The Jedi had a flawless reputation, and that was severe a critique to level against them.

But it flew right past her.

Max rolled her eyes and frowned,

“You can’t believe everything you see on the HoloNet, Chloe. There’s a lot of silly ---“

Chloe interrupted,

“Yeah, _but_.”

Max stopped speaking and just sighed.

She allowed Chloe to continue.

“You can check, right?”

Max looked out the window again.

She didn’t know how much she could tell Chloe.

It wasn’t a matter of trust.

Not really.

Max could tell Chloe was already very anxious that Max was making the wrong decision in choosing to spend time with her.

The last thing she wanted to do was aggravate that with just how far Max was willing to go.

So for now, all that came out was,

“Chloe …”

She tried to not make her voice sound too apprehensive or worried.

Chloe squeezed Max’s hand.

Max squeezed right back.

Chloe continued.

“Just … do what you can. Whatever that is. If that’s just a question to someone and they’re all ‘no’ – then, well – I got my answer.”

She didn’t sound too disheartened.

Max looked back to Chloe.

She could at least know that Max was going to find out more information about the cure.

“I’ll see if I can find anything about it.”

Chloe smiled brightly.

“Mad Max to the rescue.”

Chloe broke her hand away.

Max thought about complaining.

But the hand that broke away rode upwards and wrapped around to Max’s opposite shoulder, to tug her in much closer.

_Oh._

Max was more than happy to rest her head on her friend’s shoulder and arm with a content sigh.

They both looked out the window.

Chloe’s fingers traced gentle patterns in the clothing along Max’s arm.

Once again, they watched cars.

Chloe being quiet for so long was unusual.

Max figured she was teeing up another question or two, and just working up the nerve to broach it.

But it was okay.

This position was alarmingly relaxing.

Chloe could take all the time in the world to prepare so long as Max could hear her gentle, relaxed breathing like this.

And the delightful feeling of Chloe’s hand and fingers doing what they did.

Even if it was through a layer or two of clothing.

 

It must have been several minutes later when Chloe carefully used her free hand to push up Max’s head upright.

Max made a frustrated, complaining noise.

It trailed off when Chloe moved around to her front.

Especially with how little room she had to do this.

Max was close to the window, so they were basically adjacent still.

Only now, Max had to look up to Chloe.

Since like most people, Chloe had a height advantage over her.

Only now, Max had to feel those gentle breaths collide against her directly.

“Hey.”

Chloe sounded worried.

Max frowned for a few seconds before remembering herself and smiling.

“Yeah?”

Chloe crossed her arms.

Max took just a step or two back to give her more room to do that.

“All of … this.”

Chloe broke an arm away to gesture vaguely in between them,

“Whatever it is. You’re not doing it because I’m going to die, right?”

Max groaned.

“Chloe …”

Chloe frowned.

“I’m serious, dude. Ever since I got this _stupid_ diagnosis, everyone’s been acting really fucking weird to me, and I hate it.”

Max was quiet for a few seconds, but then nodded.

“Your situation is pretty exceptional.”

That was the wrong thing to say, though.

Chloe’s frown became more severe.

It now involved her brow line.

“ _I_ ”, Chloe paused to lean in harshly on the emphasis, “am not my disease. It’s some bullshit. I don’t want it to change how you’d act to me.”

Max bit her lip and went silent.

She considered Chloe’s words.

She wondered if she would have bothered to reconnect if Chloe _wasn’t_ in a hospital.

What would that say about Max’s character if she wouldn’t have?

Did it make her some kind of bad person if only the dire news kicked up her motivation to shake up her life like this?

Chloe then sighed and softened her face.

She closed her eyes and placed her hands on her cheeks to drag them downwards.

When her hands fell down, her face looked more relaxed.

At least it wasn’t frowning.

“I just want you to be here with me because you want to be with _me_ , not because you’re guilted by this stupid fucking curse.”

Max nodded, thoughtfully.

She still didn’t want to lie to her best friend.

“I’ll admit …”

Max sighed, but shook her head.

It wasn’t going to get any easier to get through if she stalled or hesitated.

“If you were living just fine, I would probably have convinced myself that reconnecting with you wasn’t worth any risk with the Order.”

Chloe frowned.

But Max moved closer, again.

She maneuvered her hands to intertwine both of theirs together.

And she held their hands up on either side, a little bit below their shoulders.

“But being around you reminds me of everything I left when I went to training. I’m not here because I pity you.”

Max brought their hands down to waist-line.

“I’m here because I care for you. I’m here because if I was in your shoes, I’d want me to be here, too.”

Chloe smiled.

She closed her eyes.

And then blushed.

“Yeah?”

Max nodded.

“Yeah.”

Chloe leaned her head forward.

When they were younger, they were a bit closer in height.

Now, it was ever-so-slightly more awkward for Max to lean upwards to touch their foreheads together.

But it was worth it.

It was worth remembering the last time they were this intimate.

It was even worth it if it caused Max to blush as well.

And it was worth it still if every little exhale Chloe made cascaded down Max’s face and neck in just the right ways.

It was worth it.

And no amount of meditation or concentration was going to allow her to forget how worth it it was.

Eventually,

“Hey Max?”

“Mmm?”

“You think you can sneak me out of this place for a few minutes?”

 

Max couldn’t.

It’s not like she could make people invisible.

Max learned later that Chloe’s disease kept her tied to the hospital because she’d have “episodes”.

They were slowly becoming harder to control and more life-threatening.

But sneaking Chloe out was a nice thought.

Later in the day, after they had separated and Max went back to her apartment, it stuck with her.

What would happen if Chloe ended up surviving this, and Max pulled it off?

Max almost didn’t want to think about it.

It might be too painful if it was a reality that couldn’t exist.

Somehow, Max pulled her thoughts away from that, and focused on the task at hand.

She spent the rest of her day planning.

Still, no meditation.

 

The next night, Max was at the Jedi Temple.

It was late enough at night that it would be almost entirely empty.

Just for good measure, she chose a day she knew her Master had off, as well.

The possibility of a conflict with him was not one Max wanted to risk.

Max was nervous and anxious as she entered the large hall just past the entrance.

The hall went on for what felt like a mile, with several massive pillars on either side of her.

The place was built at tremendous scale, intending to impose a sense of reverie and awe to the people who visited.

But Max wasn’t interested in the large hall, right now.

She skirted around to the far side and took some stairs going downwards.

If what the stranger said was true, and the room existed deep within the temple, that almost certainly meant it was down several stories.

Probably on the lowest floors that she usually had no business being in.

Every step downwards felt too loud.

It seemed like everyone could hear her shoes making their sounds across the entire temple.

The scale of everything certainly didn’t help, since there were echoes.

Every step made her that much more anxious.

When she was on the second to last floor down, Max had to pause and just recollect herself.

She put her hands up to shield her eyes, rub at her nose, and breathe in deep.

Max anticipated a guard of some kind.

If she was going to use the force to manipulate her way past him, she needed to be balanced and centered.

That was one of the many Jedi techniques that required that kind of focus.

It was so hard to focus now, like she used to be able to.

It was so tempting to just give up and focus on channeling her frustration at the miserable unfairness of the situation instead.

But she had a plan, damn it.

She was going to try her best to follow through with it.

By some might or miracle, she eventually managed to calm herself down and focus.

It took a few minutes.

But she managed.

Max made her way down the last flight of steps more slowly.

She kept her breathing calm and even as she descended the last few, and the floor leveled out.

 

As expected, there was a guard.

He seemed to be of the rent-a-cop variety, and not a Jedi himself.

That was good.

It was a tremendous crime within the Order to use manipulative powers on other members in the Order.

It wasn’t like all of this was suddenly acceptable, but it made easier for Max to convince herself she was still doing the right thing as she walked up to him.

It took him a second to realize she wasn’t lost and wasn’t going away.

“Um. This area is restricted, Ma’am.”

Max nodded gently.

“I need access in. My Master needs something from the Garden of Eden, and sent me to fetch it.”

Max still felt guilty as she made a vague movement with her hand to the side.

She was still focused enough to use her connection to the force to overwhelm him and influence him to believe what she said in earnest.

Max had learned that this worked by overwhelming the other person’s connection to the force.

The forced lived within everyone, it was just a scale of degrees and sensitivities.

More powerful force users where thus much more difficult to convince through this trick.

“You need access in. Your master needs something from the Garden of Eden, and sent you to fetch it.”

The odd tone that he spoke in would have unnerved Max if she wasn’t balanced, right now.

But at least it was working.

He turned around and opened the door.

He didn’t really have to give her directions, since it was a straight hall with only two other doors.

One at the far end, presumably leading to the mirrored stairs on the other side of the building.

And another, at about midway point.

That had to have been it.

Max slowly made her way to the door.

Everyone handled the aftermath of being force-manipulated a little bit differently.

Max just hoped his instinct wasn’t to immediately call for back up, and that her lie would seem convincing enough upon later reflection.

She paused at the threshold of the door leading into her destination.

Once again, dread.

If she just turned back, now.

If she just stopped.

If she just didn’t go through with this.

If she just convinced herself that the Jedi were righteous.

If she just lied to Chloe.

If, if, if.

Max had a thousand possibilities run through her mind, and they quickly burned through her focus and concentration.

With a frustrated whine, she tightened her fists.

Fuck it.

She used the keypad on the side of the door to open it.

The Max that entered the Garden of Eden wasn’t the same as the one that talked to the guard.

This Max was chewing through her anxieties by channeling her frustration.

And it was so much more effective.

And it felt so much _better._

The room was far more immense than Max was expecting.

Rows and rows of computer equipment.

Dark blue lighting.

Like the grand hall, this felt like it went on for far longer than it should have.

And there was a carpet leading to a terminal in the center of the room, for some reason.

What did the stranger say?

This is where Masters were confirmed?

It didn’t seem nearly ceremonial enough.

In another state of mind, Max would have been more suspicious of unfamiliar surroundings.

But that wasn’t who she was, right now.

She strolled over to the terminal, and pulled out a data pad.

Surprisingly, there was no protection of any kind, on the terminal.

She was free to start browsing information on it.

And just casually looking through things, there was a lot of very enticing information.

But Max bit her lip.

She looked down to the data pad, and remembered Chloe.

She was here for a reason.

With a sigh, and after a little faffing around with the cable, Max plugged in the data pad to the terminal.

Almost everything was wireless these days, but it wasn’t like this thing was designed to be interfaced with, very often.

Earlier, she had learned the name of the disease from Chloe.

Max punched it into the interface.

She was perfectly conflicted about how much of her wanted there to be nothing, and how much of her wanted there to be a cure.

If there was nothing, then her view of the world was mostly intact.

Chloe’s strange HoloNet rumors were just that – rumors.

The stranger’s odd mission would be the ramblings of a man going senile and inept.

The Jedi would still be the order she thought she knew.

 

But it didn’t come up empty.

Max was equally conflicted in response to this.

She hesitated bringing up the information.

But then remembered herself.

She was basically trespassing and stealing information not meant for her eyes.

She couldn’t dawdle.

Max brought up the information and quickly started to skim.

Just to confirm that it was what she was looking for.

She didn’t need to read very far to confirm that it was.

With a weary sigh, she started to transfer the information to her data pad.

The lack of security was still surprising to her.

But so much of the Order was built upon trust.

Maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise that all they had was a guard to remind people of that.

When the transfer was complete, Max hesitated again.

There was so much information on this terminal.

So much to learn.

So much to know.

But once again, Max looked down to her data pad.

She wasn’t here to become more powerful, or learn the darkest secrets of everything.

She was here to cure a disease.

Max disconnected the data pad and turned around.

She then crossed her arms and closed her eyes.

 

Max only skimmed the information on the disease.

But she skimmed enough to know that there were plans for a cure.

And she skimmed enough to know that this information wasn’t shared outside of the Order.

Was this the betrayal that the stranger talked about?

This feeling?

Max felt one of her hands digging into the fabric along her arm.

Her best friend could have died, and these _assholes_ would have just let it happen.

She heard the whirring of an electronic device, near the ceiling.

She frowned, and opened her eyes to look for it.

_Fuck._

A camera.

Max raised her hand and projected some force towards the camera.

What she expected was a direct thrust of power to be sent towards it – enough to damage the lens or knock it off.

What happened instead was that the device compressed severely, until it crumpled and fell to the ground as a useless little ball of sparking metal and electronics.

Max blinked.

But she remembered herself, and didn’t have time to be surprised by her own abilities.

That camera had a good few moments to look directly at her face.

The fact it was focusing meant there was probably someone on the other end.

_Fuck._

Max had to get out of here.

She stormed towards the door.

 

When she opened the door, she was greeted to a body in front of her.

She heard a light saber extending, and a nervous laugh.

This was an apprentice like her.

But he clearly wasn’t balanced.

He clearly wasn’t ready to draw his weapon on someone ostensibly in his own order.

Before the rest of Max caught up to what she was doing, she gesticulated with a hand,

“You don’t want to fight me right now. I’m just going home.”

He looked down to her hand, and back up to her.

Then down to her hand back up to her again.

He tightened the grip he had on his light saber with both of his hands and repeated the nervous laughing sound.

“Uh, I-I don’t have a choice.”

 _Fuck_.

Max wasn’t focused right now.

That wasn’t a technique that had any chance of working, and even if it was, his connection to the force might protect him enough from it.

She found her fists tightening.

Despite the fact he had a height advantage on her, there must have been something intimidating about her, since he took a few steps back, and cleared his throat.

“You’re not supposed to be in there. S-surrender that data pad you had and come with me.”

Max closed her eyes and sighed.

“I’m not going to fight you. But I’m not going to let you have it.”

He frowned.

“Why not?”

She crossed her arms.

“Because it’s the only thing that will cure my friend.”

His frown became more severe, and his shook his head.

“No, that’s not right. We don’t keep stuff like that in there.”

She sighed.

Boy if that denial didn’t sound familiar.

But every second Max stood here, she risked this situation escalating further.

“I don’t have time for this. I’m leaving.”

She turned and started to walk away, towards the door that she came from.

“H-hey! Wait! I’m going to ---“

She heard him start after her quickly, and heard a light saber move.

Her survival instinct kicked in, recognizing it as a sound of attack.

Her hand shot back, and like with the camera, she exerted some of her force towards him.

Like with the camera, all she wanted to do was push at it, shove it, knock it away, disable it.

But like with the camera, that’s not what she got.

“AHHH!”

The sound was horrifying.

Pained.

Max’s eyes went wide and she turned her head back to look at him.

He was crumbled on the floor, his light saber some ways away from him, with his hands holding his head.

He was rocking back and forth.

Clearly in tremendous pain.

_Oh no._

His scream was loud, and ---

“Hey! Stop!”

Both doors opened, and both of the guards started to walk towards her.

They had their blasters drawn.

Max’s mind was going a million miles an hour.

At everything she did.

At everything she was causing.

Unconsciously, her hand unzipped her jacket and she pulled out her light saber.

She turned it on.

They both stopped in their tracks.

Quiet.

Then,

“N-no … l-let …”

Max recognized the desperate voice as belonging to the young Jedi she had just put in pain.

She bit her lip, but didn’t look to him directly, instead looking between the two guards.

She only had a split second to react to a blaster shot and had to be ready to respond.

The other young Jedi eventually got up into a kneeling position, and coughed up something Max hoped as earnestly as she could wasn’t blood,

“S-she’s … she’s dangerous. Let her go.”

The guards looked to him, then to her, then to one another.

Max shouldn’t have been playing into this idea that she _was_ dangerous, but the desire to get out of here was tremendous, and the stress of the situation was wearing down on her ability to make long-term rational decisions.

“I don’t want to hurt you. Just please, let me through.”

There was a tense, quiet moment.

All Max could hear was the severe, broken breathing of the other Jedi.

And her own breathing, which she only now realized was as severe and heavy.

She was holding her light saber only in one hand, and her other hand was still tightly gripped into a first.

The guards were considering.

Eventually,

“Fuck this. I’m not paid enough.”

The one in front of her put his pistol in his holster and stepped to the side.

But the look he gave Max was one she wasn’t familiar with.

It wasn’t respect, or appreciation, or even some sense of superiority.

It was fear.

He was taller than her, more physically capable, and had the advantage of a blaster and distance as well as backup, but still.

She intimidated him.

“Yeah. Go. _Quickly_. Before we get in trouble, too.”

The second guard chimed in.

Max didn’t have to be told twice.

Slowly at first, she started to make her way towards the direction she came from.

She kept her light saber extended, just in case.

When she reached the door, she looked back.

The second guard had come to start helping the Jedi she had wounded.

All three of them joined together to look at her.

All three of them were afraid.

Max opened the door with a sigh, and retracted her light saber.

The Max that started to walk up the steps wasn’t the same one that walked down them not an hour earlier.

The Max that had come down here originally would have never thought in a million years she’d bring that much pain to another person in her Order.

The Max that had come down here originally would have never intimidated someone like that.

As she made her way up the impossibly long stairs, one thought just kept repeating itself in her mind.

_Is this what a good person does?_

 

She decided not to go back to her apartment in case the local police were involved.

They never were for matters that involved intra-Jedi disputes, but Max couldn’t shake the feeling.

She went to her remote camping spot, instead.

She had a lot to think about, anyway.

She all but collapsed on the log.

She carefully lit the fire pit to give herself some light and additional warmth.

The trek over here had all but entirely bled the frustration and stress out of her.

It just left other more thorny, disquieting emotions.

Anxiety.

Doubt.

Fear.

Is this what straying from the code meant?

Creating suffering in the world when she used her powers?

The pushing and pulling was supposed to be a mostly-harmless way to deescalate situations.

But his technique unleashed a greater horror than she was expecting.

Is that all he had to offer her?

 

Max pulled out the data pad and began to read through it again, more slowly.

She wasn’t regretting getting the information, per se.

But now, she was looking for an excuse.

Some kind of reason for _why_ the Jedi kept the information locked away.

She needed to find something.

Anything.

Any reason, any thread of logic, no matter how small or insignificant.

Something she could use to convince herself that the Jedi were right.

And that she was being young and foolish.

As she about the hit the bottom, she was desperate and desolate.

She only found one possible clue.

Apparently when people were cured, they gained a kind of force connection that wasn’t understood.

But surely.

 _Surely_.

Surely there had be a reason past that.

The Jedi couldn’t relegate people to death and suffering just because there would be more force-users in the world.

Max just sighed and looked down at the ground.

She listened to the fire crackling nearby.

And struggled with who she was as a person, now.

If she could even call herself a Jedi anymore, if this is what they did, and this is what she did.

If she’d even go to the temple, tomorrow.

 

Sometime later,

“You have the data.”

Max frowned, but wasn’t surprised, this time.

She looked up from the floor.

“The cure is in here. There’s … weird materials I haven’t heard of, though.”

She gestured with the data pad and stood up.

He nodded.

“The Jedi have some, and I can procure the others. Give the data to me.”

She frowned, slightly, and crossed her arms, to keep the data safe, for now.

“Not so fast. When I listen to you, people get hurt.”

He shifted on his feet.

She continued.

“I’ll give it to you, but.”

She sighed severely.

“I need you to teach me how to help and protect people with these powers, too.”

She uncrossed her arms.

“And what did you say you wanted? An ally? I need to be able to trust you if you want me to be allied with you. You won’t even tell me your name.”

He emitted a flat grunting noise.

Then,

“There are techniques you can learn that can even stop blaster fire dead in its tracks. You could make an entire group of people impervious to assault.”

Max closed her eyes and visualized it.

It was tantalizing.

No better way to de-escalate a situation than by rendering conventional weapons useless.

He continued,

“And our deal was that you give me the data, and I tell you what you want to know. Not _before_.”

She frowned again.

“How do I know you won’t just take the information and run?”

He sighed.

“And what exactly what I _do_ with information on how to cure one very specific disease?”

Max had to admit he kind of had a point.

He took a few steps closer.

So did she.

It still wasn’t that easy to be in that close of proximity to him.

 

She held out the data pad.

 

“Alright.”

At this point, Max wasn’t sure she really had any other options, anyway.

Not anymore.


	3. Downtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max learns more about the stranger.
> 
> Max practices new techniques.
> 
> Curing Chloe is suddenly within her reach.

“Yes. Perfect. ”

The stranger took the data pad and put it somewhere along the vagueness of his robe.

Then, with a satisfied sigh, he raised his hands up and pulled his hood back.

Max frowned when she got a look at his face.

“I am Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.”

His demeanor noticeably changed as the hood came down.

His posture straightened.

He kept perfect eye contact.

His hands came to the small of his back and gently crossed there.

This felt like a different man from the stranger.

But at least his voice was the same.

Still, the reveal raised more questions in Max’s mind than it answered.

Max crossed her arms.

“So you’re telling me the head of state of the galactic republic is floating around some forest to help some Jedi padawan?”

She _tried_ to make her tone not too skeptical, but that was easier said than done, and this situation strained rational explanations.

He scoffed gently.

But his smile was warm and genuine.

He was a politician, after all.

Advanced aging along his features and silvery gray hair did little to detract.

“I am not a doddering old man. I have complete freedom of movement and freedom of my actions.”

He closed his eyes.

“And you, as I said, are an exceptional case.”

He opened them again to just resume smiling brightly.

Still, it wasn’t convincing.

Max’s frown deepened.

But it took her a few moments to articulate her hesitation.

“So why go out of your way to help me? What’s your game in all of this?”

He sighed.

“Despite my position, the senate is largely comfortable listening to whatever course of action the Jedi insist upon.”

He then frowned.

“But the Jedi are not soldiers and are not generals; we are losing control of the planets on the Outer Rim at an alarming pace. They insist that we not intervene to take them back, and that we not grow the size of our army.”

Max was not a very political person, but tried her best to follow along anyway.

“So … what, then? Why would curing my friend help you with that?”

He took a few steps closer.

Max wanted to find his smile unnerving or disquieting somehow, but she just couldn’t.

It just felt too genuine.

“Because your friend is a microcosm of the problem the Jedi have. You understand my frustration with their ideology better than anyone.”

He reached a hand out.

“And when you testify in front of the senate to their mistreatment of you as a child and how they deny your friend the care she needs, it will spark outrage.”

Max looked carefully to his extended hand, but didn’t feel compelled to take it.

He hesitated.

“Afterwards, the senators will no longer feel obligated to rubber-stamp what the Jedi instruct. We can finally begin saving our republic from this awful threat.”

Max closed her eyes and sighed.

“So I’m a pawn.”

Max couldn’t see, but could feel him hesitate further.

Palpatine walked to her side and she tried not to shiver from the proximity to the connection he had with the force.

“It would be the first mutual step in our allied relationship. We would be able to rely upon one another in dark times to ensure the best for the republic.”

Max carefully considered his words.

His proposition amounted to her entirely betraying the Jedi.

But was that justified?

His concerns appeared to be selfless.

The Jedi were inherently in favor of peace and it made logical sense to Max that they’d oppose a great expansive military.

But they also kept peace in the galaxy for so many years.

That couldn’t have been an accident.

Max took in a deep breath,

“So all of those years and generations of peace under the Jedi …”

Her voice came out quieter without her fully intending it to.

“There has never been true peace in the galaxy. We’ve always had worlds full of people who do not respect democracy, or a republic.”

She looked sideways to him.

He kept looking at what had to have been nothing in particular.

“You’re saying they _lied_?”

He closed his eyes and made a thoughtful sound, before opening them again.

“Perhaps from their perspective, it _is_ correct. The republic _itself_ has not been at war.”

She frowned.

It took a little while for her to find the words to explain why this answer didn’t satisfy.

“You gave me a political answer.”

He smiled.

“You asked me a political question.”

Max groaned and raised a hand up to rub at her forehead.

He chuckled quietly.

For a few moments while longer, Max continued to consider what he had said.

She tried to find some hint of deception on his features.

Some reason to disbelieve him.

Some reason to still trust that the Order was doing what was best and just in the world.

Eventually,

“You need time to consider my offer.”

His words kicked her out of her consideration.

She frowned, but more out of the interruption than any intentional effort.

After what felt like too long, Max managed,

“I guess so. It’s a lot to ask.”

He made his thoughtful sound again.

“As though it is a simple thing to save your friend from death.”

Well.

He kind of had a point, there.

Max crossed her arms again, but then just let them fall down to her sides.

She turned to face him, proper.

Extended exposure to the power he had with the force was making it easier to deal with.

“Alright. Fine. You got me there.”

She hesitated,

“Can you at least teach me that stuff about saving people from blaster fire in the meantime?”

He turned to face her as well.

“Yes.”

It was becoming easier to believe that his smile was genuine.

Somehow.

Max probably already knew what her decision was going to be.

But she was more than eager to have a distraction from having to make any hard decision right now.

Any small comfort she could take.

\---

Warren expected many things when he listed in the republic military.

He expected some sense of direction in his life.

He expected to see more of the galaxy.

He expected to be able to save and help people.

And maybe even meet a few cute girls along the way.

What he wasn’t expecting, then, was to be dragged out on special order from the _Supreme Chancellor_ , no less, to some forest.

The walk there was awkward.

He would go, alone, and report directly to the chancellor.

Not that Warren’s superiors cared all that much if a wimpy new recruit was peeled away to perform odds and ends to keep their head-of-state content.

But still.

What a _thing_.

His mind was racing with the potential thoughts of what it might be.

A special training mission, perhaps?

Maybe he’d be given squad to go do some special mission in an exciting part of the galaxy.

The directions on this data pad could not have been any vaguer.

Maybe there was high drama in the chancellor’s social circle and he needed someone fresh and new, isolated form all of that, to help him deal with it.

He jumped at the sound of his boots cracking a particularly fearsome twig.

Maybe he was just lucky.

It took him longer than it should have, but Warren eventually made it to a clearing.

More like a camping site.

Someone had to have been using this ground regularly.

He frowned.

Why on earth would he have been called out all the way here?

“Again. You must visualize it.”

The voice of the chancellor had Warren’s head snapping around to look for it.

On the opposite end of the clearing, of course.

Warren hastily made his way over, recognizing that he was late, and dawdling would be bad.

But such movement was quite loud in full republic military armor and gear.

And the chancellor noticed.

Warren stopped just behind him and straightened his posture.

His blaster rifle came down to the floor, parallel to the length of his body, gripped at the receiving end of the barrel by one hand.

His other hand came up to sharply salute.

“Sir.”

No response.

His voice wasn’t _that_ muffled in this stupid helmet, was it?

This felt awkward.

Still.

He wasn’t going to move an inch.

Eventually,

“You’re late.”

_Shit._

Warren cleared his throat.

“It’s uh, kind of hard to find, and uh …”

But his excuses felt lame and unconvincing even as he spoke them, and they petered off into meaningless, awkward silence.

The chancellor sighed severely and took a step to the side.

Then, he turned around.

“At ease.”

Warren snapped his saluting hand down, and carefully pulled his rifle back up to a more natural holding position.

Warren had noticed, earlier, that it wasn’t only him and the chancellor in the field.

But it he thought it was mostly irrelevant.

The chancellor then gestured to the other person in the clearing – a young-looking woman in casual city clothes.

And boy was she pretty.

_Focus._

“Shoot her.”

_What?_

After ensuring what he heard _wasn’t_ a hallucination, Warren looked nervously between the chancellor and the young woman.

He tried his best to not do that nervous laughing thing he tended to do when he was nervous.

“Um. D-did you say …”

The chancellor crossed his arms.

But then smiled warmly.

“This young lady is a Jedi. She is practicing a technique that may save lives. You’re her training partner.”

_Oh._

Warren blinked only about a million times.

He had more questions than answers, now, though.

But at least that made his request seem less lethal.

And illegal.

Still,

“Is that all?”

The chancellor nodded slowly.

His smile still didn’t go anywhere.

“For the most part.”

The chancellor looked to the young woman before looking back to Warren.

“You’re to ensure nothing foul happens to her, as well.”

A bodyguard?

Well.

At least a military escort made some measure of sense.

He didn’t really think a Jedi would need such protection, though.

At least, not if the stories and legends he had heard were true.

The news was apparently more unsettling to the young woman than to Warren, who looked to the chancellor with an aghast expression.

“What? I don’t need a bodyguard.”

Her voice sound as offended.

The chancellor looked back to her, and his voice was still even and calm,

“Then he will tell me that in short order and he will be dismissed.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it after a few seconds.

She just sighed wearily instead, and raised a hand up to rub at her forehead.

Warren blinked again.

Were Jedi allowed to be so visibly peeved?

Warren always heard they were more like monks.

Resolute.

Peaceful.

“Now, I must leave. Practice well.”

The chancellor’s last two words were chipper and warm.

He turned on his heel and started to walk back in the direction that Warren came from.

When Warren looked back to the woman, she was still rubbing at her forehead.

Well, he had to say _something_ , now.

_Don’t make this awkward. Don’t make this awkward. Don’t make this awkward._

“Hi.”

_Idiot._

But the word had her looking up to him, again.

Her hands fell down to her sides.

Her face softened up.

“ _Hi_. Let’s just … make the best of this, please.”

She hesitated, then,

“Shoot me.”

Warren blinked _again_ , but dutifully raised his rifle.

And aimed it.

But he was a gentleman.

Gentlemen don’t shoot unarmed women _directly_.

So perhaps his aim was a little off.

Perhaps it would be glancing or missing entirely if it went true.

Perhaps he was more nervous than he should have been when he pulled the trigger.

 

Warren was expecting a lot of things when he joined the republic military.

He was not expecting to see his blaster shot _curve_ far off from where he had aimed it and hit some tree to one of his sides.

He lowered his rifle and just looked to where the round swerved in utter astonishment.

“What … _wow_.”

Of course, this is exactly what the chancellor had told him she was training to do.

He didn’t actually think it was going to _work_ , though.

She however was determined, and didn’t give him much time to process this revelation.

“Again.”

Right.

He was here for a reason.

Warren tried to focus.

He raised his rifle back up, and aimed once more.

This time, perhaps his aim was less glancing.

Perhaps he was less nervous when he pulled the trigger this time.

And less surprised when the round went far wayward into another hapless tree.

 

At least he _was_ meeting cute girls.

Even if this one seemed like she might be able to kick his ass.

\---

“Maxara! Look at you! Is this what you really want?”

Max was cognizant only of the voice.

It was almost shouted.

She thought she recognized it, but only vaguely.

Her eyes were refusing to make out any coherent picture.

She knew she was breathing hard, though.

And she knew that her light saber was out.

“I am doing what is necessary to save lives.”

That was her own voice, but she didn’t remember making her lips move or trying to articulate the words.

“Then you are truly lost!”

The other voice, again.

Max felt the loudness of lightsabers clashing.

And then an impossible heat along her face.

Boiling it right off.

 

Max reached her hands up to cover her face.

As though this would somehow stop the pain.

But things felt different, suddenly.

The world was quiet.

Quiet except for her heavy breathing, anyway.

Her eyes felt functional again.

They only saw the darkness of night, but at least they were seeing _something._

After a few seconds with only her severe breathing, Max realized she was sitting up in her own bed in her apartment.

Carefully, she pulled her hands down, and tried to calm herself down.

A nightmare?

Or a vision?

One of the side-effects of being sensitive to the force was seeing visions of the future through it.

The Jedi were particular to understanding them and took an almost religious effort in heeding what they were attempting to warn about.

But for a while now, her visions had become utterly useless.

She wasn’t alone, either.

That last vision was almost entirely useless to her. No details, no faces, no names.

The memory of it was already starting to fade, even.

Except the ending.

The pain felt so _real_.

She was not going to forget _that_ anytime soon.

Her face still felt as though it was heated beyond its natural means.

But her hands told her otherwise.

Max then just sighed.

She kicked off the sheets and leaned over the edge of her bed.

Her body complained, but she stood up.

She had but one window in her apartment, above her bed.

The view usually wasn’t all that useful.

All she could see were skycars.

But that was all she wanted to see right now, anyway.

Max watched them fly by as she contemplated what she saw.

What did the vision mean?

Her mind was slow, so soon after waking up.

But it had a few ideas.

She frowned and crossed her arms as she mulled them over in her mind, though.

She didn’t like any of them.

Not a single one.

 

After a few minutes of stewing, Max sighed again and closed her eyes.

She opened them to look at her night stand.

When she was younger, there was always a certain someone she’d message whenever she’d get desolate late at night.

It never seemed to matter just how late.

Max had a feeling that not even a hospital would get in the way of her friend being there for her when she needed it.

And she needed a distraction, right now.

\---

Max flopped down onto her favorite spot on her felled tree.

This clearing was becoming a more regular occurrence now that it was the site of her training.

She’d been practicing this deflection technique for a few days, now.

She was surprised how quickly she was building an affinity for it.

However, it wasn’t a _perfect_ distraction.

Merely a _nice_ one.

There were still these moments.

Moments like now.

Where she had to wonder, exactly, what she was doing with her life.

And if she was making the right choice out of all of this.

Her training partner sat down next to her, but with a friendly amount of distance between them.

But he did something he hadn’t done on any of their prior sessions.

He put down his rifle and took off his helmet.

And he just leaned over, like she did, and breathed with the same kind of weight.

Max noticed, but didn’t know what to say.

Eventually, he started,

“You okay? I have to say, I’m really impressed.”

Max turned her head to look more fully at him.

She tried to sit more upright.

He mirrored.

“I’m fine. These last few days have just been really crazy on me, is all.”

He nodded.

“Yeah, I can relate.”

Max raised an eyebrow.

“You can?”

 He nodded again and smiled softly.

“Not every day the supreme chancellor drags you out to some field in the middle of some forest and asks you to help train a Jedi.”

He looked around conspiratorially, not that anyone was around, before continuing,

“I didn’t even think Jedi were _real_ until I came here to enlist.”

Max blinked, but then scoffed.

“Of course they’re real! Didn’t you hear any of the stories growing up? Didn’t you ever see any of the temples?”

He nodded, but then shook his head.

“Yeah, of course I heard the legends. But you hear all kinds of stuff growing up as a kid. And it all just sounded, I dunno, too good to be true?”

_Too good to be true._

That cut deeper than Max thought it would.

She sighed, and just looked at him.

Really looked at him.

There wasn’t anything remarkable about his military-grade buzzcut or brown eyes.

Nothing spectacular about the way he looked, no fierceness to his jawline, no harshness in his eyes.

He wasn’t really anything like what she was excepting out of a republic soldier.

And apparently even soldiers had their weird weeks.

Eventually,

“You’re not like what I expected a soldier to be like.”

It was his turn to scoff, but the slight smile to his face became playful.

“That makes two of us, then.”

The playfulness was entirely unexpected and caught Max entirely off-guard.

He didn’t seem to notice, though,

“And you’re not what I expected a Jedi to be like, either.”

Max looked away, to the infinite trees abound.

She kind of wanted to share her burden about what she was planning on doing.

And how she didn’t really feel much like a Jedi anymore.

He was a captive audience, compelled to be with her for a little while longer, at least.

But even if the weirdness of this week they had in common, she didn’t want to share it with him quite yet.

She looked back to him.

“Jedi come in all sorts. The force is the power that binds us all, and it is a great equalizer.”

Her voice was equal and measured, calm.

This was one of the many Jedi platitudes. 

But he kept his playful smile.

And was clearly trying to hold back a laugh.

“You’ve been practicing that line, haven’t you?”

Max frowned.

“I’m serious!”

He raised a hand up to further attempt to masquerade his enjoyment.

Max groaned and stood up, to turn away from him.

The playfulness reminded her more than a little bit of Chloe.

And it made her smile, despite it all.

After a little while, he stood up and walked behind her.

He cleared his throat.

She turned around to face him.

He was looking down at the floor, and rubbing the side of his neck.

“So uh. Didn’t mean to push you too hard or nothin’. I didn’t get your name, earlier. I’m Warren.”

When he finished, he looked to her, and lowered the hand that was rubbing at his neck to extend it.

Max’s smile hadn’t gone anywhere, and when he noticed it, his posture relaxed considerably.

“It’s fine, I just … wasn’t expecting it.”

She reached one of her own hands out to shake his.

“I’m Max. Nice to meet you.”

They shared a smile.

Max broke her hand away.

She extended it towards his rifle, still sitting by the log.

She compelled it into her hand through the force.

A party trick, but an impressive one.

Especially to someone who hadn't believed in the Jedi.

“Woah.”

Max pushed it back into his hands and walked her paces back towards the trees.

Warren still had an astonished look on his face.

Max turned to face him, and extended her arms out to either side of her.

“ _Again_. This time, I want to be able to deflect shots _around_ me, not just _at_ me.”

Warren snapped out of his reverie and aimed his rifle off to her side.

Max was pleased as his shots went as wild as the prior ones had been.

This practice was serving her well.

And for a little while at least, practice was familiar.

Quiet except for the sounds of his rifle, and the errant hissing of rounds impacting various earthen surfaces.

 

But then,

“So uh. You got anyone special back home?”

Max blinked.

“Anyone special?”

Warren hesitated, and slowly lowered his rifle.

“Y’know, like. Someone you really care for, a lot.”

Max frowned, but more out of concentration.

“Well my family, obviously. And my best friend. They’re all back home. I care for them all, a lot.”

Warren blinked.

He then shook his head and raised his rifle again.

“Right.”

Max was confused by this question with a seemingly-obvious answer, but he continued to fire, and they continued to practice.

 

They also continued to find more casual subjects here and there to talk about.

It was nice to have someone to talk to about things like this while she trained.

It made it less boring and less of a slog.

She wondered why her Jedi training couldn’t have been like this.

She didn’t realize just how lonely she really was this entire time.

\---

“Maxara.”

Palpatine appeared in the clearing, one day.

Warren was running a little late.

She stood up to face him properly.

“What is it?”

He crossed his arms.

“I have received word of the rebels making a push past the outer rim. I will need your help sooner rather than later, if you wish to save your friend.”

She frowned.

It had been about a week now.

A week since she had stepped foot into the temple.

A week since she had seriously started to question who she was as a person.

A week since she had started to learn even more techniques outside of the Jedi orthodox.

It didn’t feel long enough.

She crossed her own arms, and he walked close to her.

He uncrossed his to give her a data pad.

“Follow this to find the materials you seek inside of the temple. If you go when it instructs, you will avoid any guards or other Jedi.”

She blinked.

“All guards and Jedi?”

He nodded.

Her frown deepened.

“That is not possible.”

Of course, the Jedi were not bumbling idiots.

They did not schedule things to have convenient gaps in shifts like that.

Certainly not over any precious materials.

He sighed.

“It is possible if I create a distraction for you.”

She looked down to the data pad, and back up to him again.

Still more hesitation.

He shook the pad slightly after a few moments.

“I have done my end of the deal. All that is left for curing your friend is for you to retrieve these materials from the temple.”

She looked down to the data pad again.

All that was left for curing her friend.

“You’re certain I will encounter no one?”

She reached out to take it.

“I am positive.”

Max still didn’t look away as she pulled the device closer to her.

She didn’t shiver when he was close, anymore.

She still didn’t know if she could go through with testifying in front of senate.

But she did know that she wanted to save her friend.

Mostly, these intervening days just resolved that particular conviction.

That she needed friends.

And that the Jedi were mistaken.

Perhaps about just this one particular thing.

Perhaps about more.

“This better save her.”

Max was a little breathless as the words came out.

Palpatine chuckled quietly.

“Have some faith, child.”

Max blinked.

Was he being sardonic?

But when she looked up again to question his peculiar word choice, he was gone.

She then just sighed, and looked back to what he had given her.

All the information was indeed on the datapad.

Even if she didn't like what she saw.

She had to go tonight.

This was real.

 

She sent Warren back when he finally arrived.

The bodyguard thing lasted all of a day, and he was mostly around her now just for the training.

But she didn't feel like training, right now.

She went home to her apartment, instead.

She flopped down on her bed.

She closed her eyes.

And just wondered.

About the Jedi.

About Plapatine's plans.

About Chloe.

About her future.

About whether or not she was still a good person.

 

Max didn’t know the answer anymore.

And it scared her.

More than anything else, it scared her.

And it scared her even more that this was a burden she couldn't share.

Not yet.

 

 

But.

She knew what she had to do.

Tonight.

She just hoped she didn't regret it, later.

And that Chloe would understand.

After she was cured.

\---

"Hello?"

"Who is this?"

"What do you  _mean_ someone will be at the temple during the chancellor's address? He was _very_ clear that ---"

"My ... former apprentice? You must be mistaken, she is ---"

"... No, I do not ..."

"Of course I will be there."

"Who is this?"

"Hello?"


	4. Jedi?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max encounters someone she wishes she hadn't.
> 
> A decision is made.

Max stared at the large entrance to the Jedi Temple.

Her arms were crossed.

Her face was pitched up and contorted into a mindless grimace.

She closed her eyes and bowed her head.

Deep in thought.

This was one of those pivotal life moments, it felt like.

There would be no going back from either decision she made, tonight.

Palpatine would not be likely to give her another chance if she chickened out, from the way he was talking earlier.

If she was found out, Max imagined her membership within the order would be suspect, at best.

She then just sighed.

Standing around wasn’t going to make this decision any easier to make.

And perhaps she had already made this decision a week ago, when she decided to listen to Palpatine in the first place.

Max walked into the temple.

Her breathing wasn’t nervous this time.

She knew what she had to do.

After a few moments of only the echoes of her shoes as company, Max accepted that Palpatine had indeed provided sufficient distraction.

And that she’d be alone.

For now.

\---

“Where are we going, Master? The Chancellor’s speech ---“

“We will not be making it.”

Obi-wan kept his voice calm and measured as they walked back towards the Temple.

But his words were troubling his temporary apprentice.

“But …”

He stopped.

Obi-wan noticed, and stopped as well.

They faced one another.

Obi-wan crossed his arms.

“We mustn’t delay. I will assume any responsibility if I am acting in error.”

The apprentice opened his mouth to say something.

But perhaps there was nothing _to_ say in response.

His face danced for a few seconds as it shifted from emotion to emotion.

Obi-wan extended a hand to gently rub at the apprentice’s shoulder.

“Calm yourself. The Chancellor is not an unreasonable man, and this is important.”

The apprentice sighed severely and looked down to the floor for a few moments.

He brought his hands up to interlock his fingers together.

The gesture helped him to center himself.

Obi-wan removed his hand and re-crossed his arms.

“Okay.”

The apprentice hesitated,

“You’re certain she will be there, then.”

Obi-wan carefully looked backwards, towards the looming temple off in the distance.

“I pray that she is not. There is but one way to find out.”

\---

Max exited the room.

She had gotten what she had come here for, and carefully had it stashed within her jacket.

But she wasn’t alone, in this hall way.

“Maxara.”

_Damnit._

She knew that voice.

Max looked toward and sighed when her eyes confirmed what she already knew.

Her former Master.

Obi-wan Kenobi.

With someone else, as well.

The younger man Max recognized as the same unfortunate soul that had tried to stop her the last time.

She frowned.

“Master Kenobi.”

Her Master’s arms were crossed, and there was a slight frown on his face.

She said nothing further and kept looking at him.

He hesitated.

“Please tell me that it isn’t true.”

Her frown deepened.

“That what isn’t true?”

He shook his head and closed his eyes.

“That you are here to steal from the Order. That you have intentionally avoided this temple for a week. That you are not conspiring to cure one of the diseases prophecy warns us about.”

_Prophecy._

That stupid word had Max’s fist tightening without her even realizing it.

“I can’t do that, Master. I will not have her death on my hands.”

Kenobi’s eyes opened, surprised.

“Her?”

 _Oh_.

Of course, he didn’t know about that.

Max opened her mouth to say something, but ---

The apprentice made a frustrated sound and pulled out his light saber.

Both Max and Kenobi looked to him.

“This is pointless. She is already Sith; she is not going to listen to you.”

Kenobi’s face frowned more severely.

“Put that away. A Jedi does not draw their weapon until a fight is certain.”

Max noticed that Kenobi’s tone was ever-so-slightly frustrated.

That was rare.

He was always so measured and calm around her.

“But she’s _dangerous_ – you saw what she did to me when  ---“

“--- _Now_ , Padawan.”

The apprentice looked to Kenobi, then Max, then back again, before sighing and holstering his light saber again.

“Very well. I am sorry, Master.”

Max crossed her arms, now.

“Is that what I am to you two, now? Sith?”

Kenobi looked back to her.

His face softened up considerably, and he shook his head.

“No, but…”

He sighed.

“You know what you did last week, Maxara. What you used on him was …”

He was without his words for a short while,

“Unpleasant. We do not teach such techniques.”

She grunted.

“I acted in self-defense! He charged at me!”

Kenobi’s eyes widened.

Some of the color drained out of his face.

Max only realized too late that she had basically shouted that, and there was frustration just oozing out of her words.

That is not how a Jedi behaved.

Kenobi closed his eyes and sighed.

He breathed in deep, and opened his eyes again.

“I see.”

Max didn’t miss, but didn’t know how to process, the slight tinge of remorse in his voice.

He continued,

“I want you to return those items and come with us, peacefully. What do you want in exchange?”

Max shook her head, almost without hesitation.

“Nothing. I am not leaving here without what I have.”

Kenobi closed his eyes.

“Be reasonable, Maxara. You cannot defeat both of us. Remember your training. Breathe in deep. Calm yourself. You do not want to make rash decisions, here.”

Max tightened her first.

She considered his words for a few moments.

He was clearly doing all that he could to avoid escalating this situation.

In some sense, that felt inevitable.

She closed her eyes.

Nothing had changed about _why_ she was even doing this in the first place.

Nothing had changed about the Jedi order to make following their restrictions more compelling or reasonable.

She thought of Chloe.

She breathed in deep, and exhaled carefully.

“I am sorry, Master Kenobi. My conscience will not be clear unless I do all that I can …”

She opened her eyes.

Kenobi had opened his in the intervening moments.

He just shook his head.

“Very well.”

He then looked to the apprentice,

“You’re free now to _disable_ her, nothing more.”

The apprentice looked to Kenobi, then back to Max.

He pulled out his light saber.

“Finally.”

Max saw the frown on Kenobi’s face from the apprentice’s attitude.

She pulled out her own light saber.

Max didn’t actually think she could win a fight against her former Master.

Even if some of her new techniques might catch him off-guard.

But she was holding out hope that somehow, this could work out.

Maybe if she subdued this apprentice, she’d show just how serious she was about saving her friend.

The apprentice took a few steps closer.

Max steeled her resolve.

This was it.

The die was cast.

As their sabers clashed for the first time, she knew.

There was no going back, anymore.

Max was surprised at the expression on the apprentice’s face as he attacked her a few times.

Despite Kenobi’s efforts, he was not balanced.

There was something fierce in his eyes.

Was it revenge?

He was a totally different person the first time that they had met.

Sensing that he’d be unable to properly deal with a force attack in this state, Max pressed her attack.

He had to take a few steps back and disengage.

She then raised her hand and projected her force at him.

One of the things she insisted that Palpatine teach her was how to control some of the force she projected better, so that it was less horrifying.

With some concentration, she could refine the general crushing technique into a more precise remote gripping.

Through the force, she gripped remotely at the bottom of his saber, and thrust it off to the side, against the wall.

As she expected, his unbalanced state didn’t allow him to properly deflect or redirect the incoming force, and his saber flew away, plinking harmless against the wall.

Max lowered her saber after that.

The apprentice yelped in surprise and looked towards his removed weapon.

Kenobi shook his head.

“Padawan, you must focus. Maxara is not a novice force user. You will not be able to win a fight just on your light saber technique alone.”

Max was still hoping she could impress Kenobi into letting her leave with the important ingredients peacefully, so she didn’t intervene, and just waited patiently.

The apprentice looked back to Kenobi, and sighed wearily.

“Yes, Master.”

He then clasped his hands together, and bowed his head.

Max frowned slightly, and started to pace around left and right.

After a few quiet seconds, the apprentice lowered his hands, raised his head back up, and looked directly at her.

He compelled his light saber back into his hand, and extended the other hand forward.

He projected his force at her, but the technique was predictable.

Max was able to raise her light saber defensively and harmlessly deflect off the force he exerted towards her to one of the walls.

This was just an opener, though.

He immediately moved forward after that and began to strike at her once more.

Their light sabers clashed in a stalemate.

But it didn’t last for long.

He pushed her back, and they resumed striking at one another.

This time, his breathing was more calm.

Both of his hands were appropriately gripping at his light saber, and his strikes were measured, calculated.

At first, their skirmishing felt equal.

But Max soon realized he was more practiced with his light saber technique.

And it wasn’t long before she was on the defensive.

Clash.

He was consistently pushing her back, but there was plenty of hall way behind her.

She could keep this up for now.

Clash.

He was slowly building up his speed in striking, as if trying to gauge her skill in relationship to him.

Perhaps he was trying to let her come to the realization as slowly that she was out matched.

Clash.

But this clash didn’t result in him immediately pushing her back.

She pushed when he did, and they ended up in a stalemate for a short while.

Just staring at each other between crossed blades.

At first, she saw nothing scornful in his eyes.

But as her breathing got a bit heavier and she tried to push _him_ back instead, she saw just a flash.

Just a flicker.

But that was all of the warning she had.

He allowed her to push him back, and then _immediately_ lashed out with one of his most quick and forceful slashes.

He aimed it immorally at her legs, as though he meant to disfigure her.

She hardly had the time to lower her blade to try and protect her legs.

But she was caught-off guard, and her form was poor.

She deflected the blow shy of its target, but it caused a painful recoil of her saber away from her body.

And as his saber swung towards her once more, hers was still far out of position, and couldn’t be used to deflect.

He wasn’t aiming for her legs this time, though.

No.

Now, he was aiming straight for her face.

All she had the time to do was try and lean back.

 

But it wasn’t enough.

 

The blade cut clean diagonally across her face, going from the top left of her forehead, down to the bottom right of her jaw line.

Her movement was enough to avoid it from being fatal.

But not enough to avoid it from striking at all.

Surprisingly, the actual cut itself didn’t hurt.

But almost immediately after he finished, the area _around_ it began to scream out in intense agony.

Max shouted, raising both of her hands up to cover her face and falling down onto her knees.

Her light saber clanked uselessly against the floor, but it was the least of her concerns right now.

It felt like her entire face was boiling off.

Her nails were digging so tightly into the skin along her face and her breathing was going a million miles an hour.

_Fuck._

“What are you doing!”

She heard Kenobi’s voice at a near-shout, but.

Her thoughts were pretty disorganized at this point, and the searing pain on her face was keeping her from concentrating on the conversation being had in front of her.

At least she figured she’d have a few moments of respite.

Not that it was enough to undo the damage that the apprentice had caused.

Not that it was enough to reverse the sinking feeling that she had failed.

Not that it was enough to reverse her mind thinking of the materials being taken from her, and Chloe dying.

The worst possible outcome.

Max suddenly remembered another one of her conversations she had had with Palpatine.

_It is possible that you may hit your lowest moment. When everything seems pointless, and you feel feeble and weak._

Her face felt like it wasn’t boiling alive anymore, and she could lower her hands away from her face.

At least both of her eyes still worked.

 _In these times, it may be life-or-death for you._ _This is when you must call upon your anger._

Max breathed in deep, and tightly clenched her fists together.

_You must think of how unfair the world is. Of all the injustices you have endured._

She slowly, haltingly stood up.

_In these times, only through your anger will you be able to break free of the chains the Jedi have placed upon your power._

Max attempted her best to follow his instructions.

She opened her eyes.

The apprentice was looking back to Kenobi, and they were having some sort of conversation.

Max’s face was still searing, and the pain was still throbbing and agonizing.

She focused on this feeling.

This punishment she had received for trying to save her friend.

And how the world seemingly conspired against her to ensure that she wouldn’t be able to.

Max grit her teeth.

She compelled her light saber back into her hand, and launched herself at the apprentice.

Even she was surprised at the sheer speed she was afforded.

_In these times, you will be **free**._

“Look out!”

When Palpatine first told her of this technique, she was skeptical, to say the least.

It was a total repudiation of everything the Jedi taught.

Anger was the emotion that saw the most persecution from Jedi orthodoxy.

But now, as she followed Palpatine’s advice, and allowed her connection with the force to guide her strikes, she couldn’t figure out why.

Almost effortlessly, she had the apprentice on the defensive.

He couldn’t keep up with her new-found speed, and by allowing the force to guide her strikes, her light saber technique was entirely unpredictable to him.

Clash.

Every clash now, she grunted loudly at him, and pushed him far back.

Now, she was pushing him back at a walking pace.

They were a few feet from Kenobi.

Clash.

This clash, they held at stalemate for a few seconds.

In this time, she looked at his eyes again.

And she didn’t see nothing, this time.

She saw a different emotion.

She saw fear.

Max suddenly had a dangerous idea.

She forced the clash of their sabers off to the side, and viciously headbutted him.

The hit excited some of the pain along her forehead to an even greater degree.

However, this pain wasn’t debilitating, anymore.

It was freeing.

Every pulse of agony reminded her of just how much she had to lose from losing these fights.

And it kept her strong and resolved.

The headbutt caught the apprentice entirely off guard, and he flinched backwards, dazed.

Now was her opportunity to end this fight.

His hands had raised slightly backwards and up, but his technique still had both of his hands holding his saber.

His wrists were adjacent.

And in his moment of confusion, he was unable to defend her blade coming straight across his wrists.

He screamed.

But she didn’t care.

Not right now.

Now, he was helpless.

The fight was almost certainly over.

But she was being compelled to strike at him, again.

To disfigure his face like he had done to hers.

To teach him a lesson.

She swung her blade partially, but hesitated in completing the motion.

And in that hesitation, Kenobi compelled the apprentice back with his force.

The apprentice landed on the floor to Kenobi’s side rather unceremoniously, and was left to just slowly collapse onto his knees, staring in disbelief at his lack of hands.

Kenobi was breathing heavily, clearly distraught.

That was something they had in common.

“You were going to kill him!”

She frowned, and lowered her light saber.

“I was going to do him what he did to me.”

Kenobi paused, but then shook his head,

“Jedi do not seek revenge.”

He looked down to the now-helpless apprentice, then back to up to her,

“You had already won the fight. You didn’t need to wound him like that.”

Max grunted in such a guttural way it almost sounded like a growl,

“Tell _him_ that.”

Kenobi crossed his arms and sighed deeply.

“I _was._ ”

He then allowed his arms to fall to his sides and carefully found his own light saber.

“You put me in a difficult position, Maxara. I do not wish to fight you, but I cannot let you leave here with what you have.”

Max slashed at the air in front of her out of frustration.

“Why not?!”

It was just so _unfair._

Her voice was beyond the point of being unbalanced, but she stopped caring, at some point.

But the words seem to give him pause.

Either from the genuine _pain_ and _frustration_ in her tone or from the content of her words.

“You know why. You took the information about the disease.”

She started to pace from side to side again as he continued,

“The prophecy states that someone who has it cured possesses power beyond our recognition. We can’t …”

He closed his eyes,

“We can’t let that fall into the wrong hands. The balance of the force could be forever corrupted.”

But this didn’t satisfy.

“It’s not right to doom people to death for some … _bullshit_ prophecy!”

He flinched, and opened his eyes again.

“I understand your struggle, Maxara, but please. This has gone too far. Just give me what you took.”

He hesitated,

“We can see about giving whoever it is you want to cure an aptitude test. Maybe they could be a Jedi themselves. You don’t want to fight me.”

Max thought about his words.

Was this the peaceful resolution she wanted out of this situation?

Right after he finished talking about how it being a risk they couldn’t take?

She frowned again, and looked down to the apprentice.

Was there really any chance of that now that she had wounded him like that?

She started to look back up to Kenobi, but ---

Her thoughts were derailed when he saw that Kenobi’s hand had extended, slightly, and he had made a motion with it.

He had kept this hand down by his side, so that she wouldn’t see it readily.

He was trying to force manipulate her.

Max’s grip on her light saber tightened to point she thought it’d leave impressions in her hand,

“You’re **lying**!”

It’d take a while for even Max to unpack all the hurt that was in her words, now.

There was even a little waver of her voice at the end, as though it was threatening to crack and break.

Somehow, intimidating and pitying at once.

He flinched again.

Calmly, he brought his light saber up to the center of his chest, joined his second hand to form a proper grip on it, and turned on his light saber.

“Is this really what you want?”

She slashed at the air in front of her again in her frustration.

“I am doing what is necessary to save lives!”

She wasn’t even really thinking of her words, at this point.

He was quiet for a few seconds, considering.

“Then you are truly lost.”

He lurched forward, and they began to skirmish.

He was a far more practiced swordsman than she was, but the stakes were different for him.

And Max right now had nothing to lose by putting everything she had into this.

And for a little while, at least, it was enough to genuinely have him on the defensive.

Her connection to the force and her channeled anger were still compelling her strikes in unusual, forceful ways.

It was more than enough to overwhelm the apprentice.

And it seemed like this potent mix might be enough for Kenobi, as well.

Clash.

In their stalemate of the clash, she got a good look at his eyes.

And he got a good look at hers.

“Maxara … look at yourself.”

She didn’t quite know how to parse his tone or the way his eyes wavered.

So she didn’t think about it.

She pushed him back out of the clash.

He brought his saber to his chest again, and closed his eyes.

He didn’t move.

Max hesitated.

Was he giving up?

She tried to slice at his wrists like he had done with the apprentice, but he effortlessly deflected it.

She grunted, and resumed her full attacks on him.

But she couldn’t push him back, anymore, and despite his eyes being closed, his concentration allowed him to deflect every possible move she could make quite effortlessly.

It was frustrating.

Maddening.

It felt like the same force that was telling her where and how to strike and compelling her body to move was doing the same for him to tell him how to defend.

Like a perpetual, built-in stalemate.

Max wasn’t sure for how long it went on.

Long enough to start exhausting her from the exertion.

She wasn’t sure at what point she stopped listening to it.

She wasn’t sure when she just started to brusquely wail on him with all the energy she had left behind each swing.

As though maybe if she hit with enough, she could overwhelm his defenses.

But these attacks were imprecise and risky.

And as her hands were well above her, about to slam down with another full-force strike, he broke one of his hands away from his light saber, and exerted a tremendous amount of force to push her far back.

He had bided his time carefully, and waited for an opening such as this.

And now she was sent clear across the hall way, very nearly to the back wall.

She skidded to a halt just shy of that end.

She then slashed at the air in front of her again, and felt just how severe her breathing was, now.

Her entire upper-body was moving with her breathing at this point, since it was the only way to sustain it.

This was as worked-up as she had been in years.

And perhaps there was a reason why the Jedi tried to be so restrained.

Max fell to her knees, and then onto her hands.

Her light saber fell down to the floor at some point in between.

This was totally exhausting.

She felt tears, and blinking didn’t help to dispel them.

She had given everything she had.

And it still wasn’t enough.

Even in betraying the last of what the Jedi had taught her, it still wasn’t enough to defeat Kenobi.

And save Chloe.

From across the hall, she heard Kenobi’s lightsaber turn off, and him sigh.

Max forced herself up into a kneeling position, and found her lightsaber again.

But she turned it off, as well.

She closed her eyes.

She had failed.

Kenobi started to walk towards her, slowly.

“Maxara …”

 

About halfway to her, the door leading into the hallway opened.

Max opened her eyes and looked up to see who had intruded.

But it wasn’t a single person.

There was a whole squad of republic soldiers marching their way past the apprentice and towards her.

She blinked, and carefully stood up.

She saw Kenobi look back, frown, and turn around to face them.

They stopped in front of him.

“This is Jedi business.”

The soldier in front, leading them, shook his head.

“I’m afraid not, sir. This comes directly from the Supreme Chancellor himself. High-priority. She’s to come with us.”

_What?_

“What?”

Kenobi sounded as confused as she felt.

He looked back to her, and searched her face.

But she wore her confusion openly, which only caused his brow to furrow further by the time he looked back to them.

“I cannot let her go with you.”

The soldier hesitated, but then shook his head again.

“This is by official decree of the republic. Either you allow us, or we arrest you.”

Kenobi sighed wearily.

But he wasn’t resisting them any further, and stepped off to the side.

Max started to walk towards the group.

As she walked past Kenobi, he grasped at her arm and pulled her to stand in front of him.

“Maxara. If you go with them, now, without giving me those materials …”

He looked up to the ceiling for a few seconds, then back down to her,

“I will not be able to stop the council. They will not allow you to remain a Jedi.”

Max wrenched her arm around to free of it his grasp and took a step or two back.

She frowned, and looked down to her lightsaber.

She turned it around to run her thumb along the engraving once more.

“My name is Max.”

By now, the anger had left her.

All that was left in her voice was a disquieting kind of numbness.

Her voice was flat and a little distant.

He blinked, and paused.

“What?”

She sighed.

“My name is Max. Not ‘Maxara’. I hate being called that.”

She looked back up to him, and pushed her hand with the lightsaber forward, offering it.

“I do not contest their wisdom. I don’t feel like a Jedi, anymore.”

Kenobi’s mouth was wide.

He couldn’t form words.

“I …”

She pushed it into his chest.

He grunted, but reluctantly raised a hand up to take it.

He was still speechless as Max turned and started to leave with the group.

When they were back by the door,

“Max.”

Max looked back to Kenobi,

“Who is C?”

She saw that he was examining her light saber.

He had probably found the engraving.

“Chloe.”

Max hesitated,

“I wish you could have met her. You would have liked her. She gets along with everybody.”

Her voice was still so flat, but it carried a little wistful edge, now.

One of the soldiers interrupted.

“Ma’am, we really must go.”

She looked forward to the soldier.

“Yeah.”

Her voice came out as a sigh.

She walked out of the hall way with them.

 

Kenobi didn’t offer her any more words as she left.

He just stared at the engraving on her light saber, and tried to fit all the pieces together.

This must have been the person she was fighting to save.

Her motivation made a bit more sense, now.

He just hoped that with her friend cured, she’d have no more motivation to tap into her anger like that.

The sight of her, enraged, with her eyes temporarily corrupted into that vicious yellow, was something he wasn’t going to forget for a long time.

 

He sighed.

She wasn’t yet beyond saving.

But he wasn’t going to be the one to save her.

\---

The soldiers escorted Max to Palpatine’s office.

She was allowed inside, alone.

She crossed her arms whence inside.

“You have a lot of explaining to do.”

He smiled warmly, looking up from his desk.

“There you are. I was beginning to worry.”

She closed her eyes and sighed, before walking to take one of the seats in front of his desk.

“I sent an escort over as soon as I learned that someone broke away from my event to pursue you.”

Palpatine paused for a few seconds.

“I assume they were too late, from that wound on your face.”

Max raised her hand up to gently touch at her light saber wound.

It was still quite sensitive to the touch, and still aching.

She brought her hand down.

At least what he said sounded plausible enough, given the late timing of the soldiers.

“I got into a fight.”

Palpatine’s smile faltered slightly.

“Oh dear.”

He brought his hands together and clasped them.

“With another Jedi, I assume? So they know about this, then?”

Max nodded.

“Yeah. I guess I’m not a Jedi, anymore.”

There was a flash of emotion across his face Max didn’t have the time to process.

He continued,

“Did you at least get what we need?”

Max nodded, and unzipped her jacket to bring out the vials of materials necessary for the cure.

Thankfully, none of them had been broken in the skirmishing.

She placed them on his desk.

“Excellent. Make your way down to the hospital nearest here; I’ll see to you getting some care for that wound of yours.”

She nodded and stood up.

That sounded like a good idea.

“Okay.”

She turned to walk out of his office.

“Oh, and.”

He cleared his throat.

“Now that you know the way here, come by after they finish helping you. We have much to discuss.”

Max looked back to him, briefly, before sighing and looking forward again.

“Okay.”

 

During the walk to the hospital, Max had nothing to do but think.

The ache from her wound wasn’t letting her think about much else but what happened in the hall way.

She still felt exhausted and drained from that encounter.

How could she possibly explain to Chloe that she traded her membership with the Order for her life?

What was she going to do after Chloe was cured?

What kind of job could she possibly get with her odd skillset?

At least she was still young.

Maybe she could learn to do something else.

Maybe Palpatine would have work for her to do in the meantime.

In a sense, it was harder to believe that she was doing the right thing.

She had forced that fight by not relenting.

But in another sense, it was easier to believe.

The Jedi were consumed by their conceptions about fate and prophecy.

Chloe wouldn’t possibly corrupt the force or bring that kind of unbalance to everything.

If they just bothered to ask her, they’d know that.

Did they take this approach about intergalactic matters as well?

She could see how that might not be in the best interest of the galaxy.

\---

“So then, we have a cured person on our hands.”

Kenobi nodded.

Another member of the council spoke,

“Do we have any clues as to who this person might be?”

Kenobi hesitated, and thought back to the hallway conversation he had with Max.

And the engraving she had on her lightsaber.

“No.”

A council member hummed flatly.

“Hmm. Most unfortunate. We must put feelers out.”


	5. Peace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe is cured.
> 
> Max celebrates with her.
> 
> Palpatine smiles.

“I’m going back to my home world.”

Palpatine hummed flatly.

“You still owe me a testimony in the senate.”

Max frowned.

“I’ll come back in a week. Then you’ll have your testimony.”

Palpatine sighed wearily and interlocked his fingers together.

He’d been sitting on his chair, in his office, and had now leaned over, slightly.

His eyes closed for a few seconds.

“We live in very dangerous times, Maxara. I need your testimony as soon as possible to move things forward.”

Max crossed her arms.

“A week won’t hurt anything.”

She then sighed, and raised a hand up to rub gingerly at the still-fresh wound across her face.

This was becoming a comfort tic.

“I just need to make sure the cure works and she’s fine.”

Palpatine raised an eyebrow.

“My my. Such worry.”

Max’s frown deepened.

Palpatine then just laughed breezily and stood up.

Despite his visibly advanced aging, he never seemed to lack for ability in movement.

He hesitated.

She looked him square in the eye.

“Very well. I’ll see to your transport there and back.”

Max smiled.

“Thanks.”

Palpatine brought his hands behind his back.

“The moment you come back, though …”

Max just sighed and nodded with her eyes closed.

“I know. I will be ready, then.”

\---

Max opened the door to Chloe’s hospital room with the visitor’s pass, again.

This day felt like it had gone on for too long now, and she was exhausted.

But she wasn’t allowed to be that tired around Chloe.

Chloe bounded up from her hospital bed with youthful exuberance and immediately wrapped her arms around Max in a tight bear hug.

Max squeaked.

“Chloe … can’t breathe.”

Chloe just snickered.

“What’s that? Can’t hear you.”

Somehow, the hug got even _tighter_ , and she used her grasp on Max to lift her off of the ground for a few seconds.

Chloe put her back down after turning around.

The door behind them closed quietly.

Max sucked in a harsh breath as Chloe’s grip lessened.

Despite her best efforts to be annoyed by Chloe’s disregard for her personal space or ability to _breathe,_ she was still smiling as Chloe’s hands carefully moved up and just rubbed at her shoulders.

“I can’t believe you did it. I’m just – I’m so --- ugh, man.”

Chloe could hardly even contain her energy.

This jittery, excitable person was the one Max knew best from their childhood.

“Mmmmmnhh.”

But Max still felt so tired, and could only flop her head uselessly against Chloe’s chest and rest it there.

Chloe didn’t quite know how to handle this, and hesitated for a few moments.

That was alright.

Max liked feeling Chloe’s rapid, shallow breathing cascading down her hair.

The rising and falling of her chest was relaxing, somehow.

Eventually,

“Hey, you alright?”

Max groaned and pulled her head away to look Chloe square in the eyes.

But she was still smiling, despite it all.

“Yeah. I am. Just … _tired_.”

Her sentence almost finished as a sigh.

It took another moment for Chloe to process the words and their implication.

With some considerable effort, she calmed herself down, and then nodded.

“Yeah, okay, I can see that. Still. You’re like a legit super hero now. I can’t believe it. The Jedi must be so proud. Going around, saving lives already.”

_The Jedi._

Max frowned without really meaning to.

There was just a lot of emotional baggage tied up with the Order, now.

A lot that she didn’t want to unpack around Chloe.

Chloe noticed.

But Chloe didn’t quite have the words to pry what she wanted out of Max with the pain she saw on her face.

“No. You were right. The Jedi are awful. They had the _stupid_ cure and the _stupid_ information and all of the _stupid_ \---“

Max’s voice was starting to pitch up and become unbalanced.

Chloe’s eyes widened,

“--- Hey hey hey-hey-hey heyheyhey. Shh. Shhhh.”

The last thing Chloe wanted was a distraught or even crying Max, right now.

Even if it was worrying on a whole new degree that the rumors on the ‘net were _true_ , Chloe had to shove that part of herself down to do what she could to keep Max steady.

Max sighed and just flopped her head back into Chloe’s chest.

“I don’t want to talk about it right now, please.”

Chloe nodded.

One of her arms lowered to hug at Max again.

The other raised to gently play along her hair.

Max closed her eyes.

 

When she opened them again, Chloe had slowly maneuvered both of them over to her hospital window.

Max diligently turned around to stare at the sky cars rushing by.

Now, her back was to Chloe’s front.

Chloe adjusted her hands and arms to accommodate.

It was nice.

Eventually, Max sighed again.

She felt better, now.

“But I’m happy the cure worked.”

She even found herself slightly smiling.

“Yeah?”

Chloe kept her voice as even and quiet as she could.

But something was eating away at her from Max’s emotional response to the subject.

“Do you regret it?”

Max hummed thoughtfully and shook her head.

She raised one of her own hands to find Chloe’s hand that had been hugging about her belly, so that they could interlock their fingers.

She didn’t really have to think about the response.

“No. You’re alive and you don’t hate me. That’s all I need.”

Chloe hesitated again, but Max could tell she was starting to grin.

“Are you telling me you’re a cheap date? I’d just have to show up and you’d be all happy?”

Max groaned.

But she was smiling wider.

“And you were complaining about _me_ not being able to focus, earlier.”

Chloe chuckled.

“Guilty.”

There was another moment of quiet.

These quiet moments were never awkward or tense around Chloe.

Max couldn’t figure out why.

She paused.

She wanted to ask Chloe if she would have done the same things.

But right now, she didn’t want to have the difficult conversations about morality.

She was too tired.

And this was supposed to be a _happy_ moment, damn it.

That could wait for later.

For now, Max was content to just rest in Chloe’s arms, quietly play with her hand, and mindlessly watch the sky cars zoom right on by.

 

Sometime later, the door to the room opened again.

Chloe’s excited side was easy to stir up, and just this was enough to have her pulling away from Max and bounding towards the door.

It took Max much more time to turn around and see who it was.

Chloe’s parents.

Their smiles widened.

“Holy sh …”

Chloe started a word, but seemed to think better of it,

“… aaazbot. You guys made it so soon.”

Chloe’s mother, Joyce, just nodded.

She always had such a huge, warm smile on her face.

Now was no exception, of course.

“Like we were going to let you just ride in some filthy cab out of here.”

Max walked closer.

She didn’t know exactly what they had seen, but them being best friends was hardly a secret to either of their parents.

Joyce noticed first.

“Oh! Max. I almost didn’t see you there. It’s been so long, sweetie …”

 

Seemingly all at once, the Price family decided that Max should spend the night at their house, to celebrate Chloe’s cure.

That was alright.

Max liked doing that.

And it had been far too long since she had done so last.

She wanted to enjoy another one of their family dinners.

The way Chloe’s dad was _just like Chloe_ in how he knew how to make Max smile and laugh.

The way Joyce’s meals were always the best.

The way Chloe would innocently pick off of Max’s plate, and act offended whenever anyone would accuse her of such.

It felt so nice to do it all, again.

Max didn’t realize how much she missed this, too.

 

“I see a dog.”

Max hummed thoughtfully.

Now, it was late at night.

They were out in Chloe’s backyard, laying down on the grass, side-by-side, staring at the starry night.

“What about that one?”

Max pointed to another vague direction.

“That’s a dog, too.”

Max hummed again.

She pointed somewhere else.

“And there?”

Chloe scoffed.

“Duh. Totally a dog. Are you even trying?”

Max rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.

“They can’t all be dogs, Chloe.”

Chloe scoffed again, indignantly this time, and turned on her side.

She supported her own head with an arm.

“Why not? What are you going to do about it, pussycat?”

Of course, Chloe’s tone was boundlessly playful, and her grin expansive and all-consuming.

Max just chuckled quietly, and looked over to Chloe.

“I’m not going to stop you from being silly, Clo.”

Chloe’s face scrunched up for a few seconds, but the moment passed quickly, and she was back to grinning playfully.

“You’re too scared from last time, aren’t you?”

Max looked back to the sky and rolled her eyes.

“Maybe a little bit. You almost sucker-punched me the last time I tried to tickle you.”

Chloe groaned.

“Dude that was years ago. You just surprised me. I said I was sorry.”

Max hummed.

“After Joyce made you.”

Now it was Chloe’s turn to roll her eyes.

“Details, details.”

They were quiet for a little bit after that, but they both ended up smiling.

Max went back to picking out meaningless patterns in the infinite stars.

So it was okay.

Some time later,

“Does it bother you?”

Chloe sounded thoughtful.

Max looked back to her.

“Am I not allowed to not want to tickle you?”

Chloe blinked.

“No, I mean.”

Chloe’s free hand – the one that wasn’t supporting her head – came to point at Max’s head wound.

“That.”

Max flinched away from the closeness of the finger unconsciously.

Chloe noticed that, too.

“It’s fine.”

Chloe sighed.

She was quiet for a few seconds.

Then,

“You can tell me anything, dude.”

Max nodded.

Her reply came quickly.

“And I’m not lying. I mean it.”

She hesitated,

“You know I don’t really care about how I look, anyway.”

Max looked back to the stars.

“I don’t do much with my hair, or my face. I’m not that attractive. It doesn’t ---“

When Max looked back, she had caught Chloe miming Max prattling on with her free hand.

Max frowned, and used one of her hands to push Chloe’s down with an indignant huff.

“I’m being serious, Clo.”

Chloe sighed.

“Sorry. You just do that, sometimes.”

Max blinked.

“Do what?”

Chloe shook her head.

“Get self-conscious.”

Max’s frown deepened.

“It’s not self-conscious, I just ---“

Chloe sighed again, more wearily, and shifted in a bit closer proximity.

It was more than enough to shut Max up.

“It _is._ I say so. You look gorgeous, okay? Whether or not you do much with your hair. Whether or not you got a scar. Whether or not you put on a lot of makeup.”

Max absorbed Chloe’s words.

She considered them quietly.

“You mean that?”

Chloe grinned again, and nodded.

“Duh. Now stop being an idiot.”

Max closed her eyes and sighed contently.

She looked back to the stars.

One of Chloe’s hands came to rest on Max’s belly.

Max moved a hand to intertwine.

That was nice, too.

Chloe shifted around again so she was on her back as well, and they were adjacent.

Max opened her eyes.

“Thanks, Chloe. I needed that.”

She paused for a few seconds.

“It still doesn’t bother me. I got it getting the cure. So it was worth it.”

Another moment of hesitation.

“You’d do the same thing, wouldn’t you? If it meant you got the same wound?”

Chloe nodded, but not that Max could see it.

“Duh. I’d give an arm and a leg for you, Max.”

She paused in her own moment of contemplation,

“But not two arms and two legs. That seems excessive.”

Playful again.

Playful as always.

Max smiled wide.

“It’s nice to know I’m only worth two extremities.”

Chloe nodded again.

“Yeah, but, if it makes you feel any better, I’d let them take my favorite ones.”

Max blinked.

“You have favorite limbs?”

Chloe scoffed.

“You don’t?”

Max just smiled like an idiot and shook her head.

This felt just like when they were kids, again.

And now that that stupid Jedi business was done and over with, she could properly enjoy it.

In these moments, it was easy to believe that saving Chloe was the right thing to do.

She wasn’t going to forget the pain that the wound on her face caused her.

It was a reminder that sometimes, things weren’t easy.

But it was also a reminder that the good things in life were worth fighting for.

 

Max pointed at another group of stars.

“What about those?”

Quiet.

“Dog.”

Max didn’t protest Chloe’s incessant labeling, this time.

She just enjoyed her quirky friend.

\---

Chloe slept well, last night.

It probably helped that Max was in her room.

In her bed, even.

Sleep overs with Max were always so awesome.

Even now, though they had aged several years, their dynamic had hardly changed at all.

Chloe just relaxed on her bed with deep sigh.

Max was still asleep.

She looked tired yesterday.

So she could sleep a little bit longer if she needed it.

She certainly deserved it.

But.

Now, in these quiet moments, Chloe was plagued with the implications of what Max had said yesterday, in one of their soberer conversations.

_You were right. The Jedi are awful._

Chloe frowned.

The Max she knew would never think of the Jedi like that.

It was her lifelong dream to become a knight, and eventually a master.

Wise.

Astute.

Peaceful.

In a way, Chloe always kind of thought it wouldn’t work out.

Max always had such tremendous difficulty focusing on things.

She could be quiet sometimes, sure, but it was a mistake to confuse this quietness with focus.

She was always thinking, and perhaps a bit too much.

Yet.

Here she was.

She showed just how wrong Chloe was.

Not just _once_ , either.

Chloe was almost certain that Max wasn’t serious about reconnecting.

Yet she came through in a way that knocked Chloe off her feet.

She came through in a real way.

And she was here, now.

Trying to reconnect.

Recover what they had lost.

Chloe looked to Max’s face.

Max slept with her mouth wide open, like a big dumb idiot.

But somehow, it was endearing.

As the new scar on her face was.

Chloe almost raised a hand up to trace along the wound, but thought better of it.

It looked still fresh.

What else had Max gone through to cure Chloe?

Was it just this scar, and just that new-found cynicism for the Jedi?

Chloe stared and thought about it.

She didn’t like any of the ideas she turned up, though.

Not a single one.

 

Max breathed in sharply.

Chloe blinked.

Max smacked her mouth and slowly opened her eyes.

She looked a little surprised to see Chloe staring _right at her,_ but seemed to adjust mighty quickly.

She smiled.

“Mmmmm-you’re. Mm. Staring.”

Chloe scoffed.

“There’s a lot to stare at.”

She lowered her voice, in her best attempt to make it as suggestive as she could.

But Max just smiled a bit wider and looked away to Chloe’s ceiling.

She stretched her arms up and arched her back to wake up more.

“I guess so. Good morning.”

Chloe frowned for just a split second.

No matter how she tried to flirt, Max always took it as friendly, and brushed it right off like it was nothing.

“Good morning. You look better.”

Max nodded gently.

“Yeah. I feel much better. It’s a wonder what some good rest can do.”

Chloe let the words go without a response for a little while as she pondered further.

She was beginning to think Max just wasn’t into her like that.

Maybe Max really was just a good friend.

But the pieces refused to fit correctly with that.

The carving on Max’s lightsaber.

Their general intimacy.

How far Max was seeming willing to go.

Even if she sacrificed much to get there.

Maybe Chloe just had to be more direct.

Maybe she just had to do something that could _only_ be interpreted as flirting.

But.

Just thinking about it made her nervous.

When they were younger, Max was Chloe’s best and closest friend.

And at this rate, she’d be right back to that role in no time, if she wasn’t _already_.

Chloe didn’t want to ruin that with her stupid, selfish emotions.

 

The stillness dragged on.

Max just looked to Chloe quietly, warmly.

They were so close.

In the same freaking bed.

Just inches apart.

This was a perfect chance to make a clear move.

To remove this confusing ambiguity.

_Hey Max. I really like you. Kiss me?_

The words were right on Chloe’s mind.

On the tip of her tongue.

They wouldn’t leave.

She’d almost said it a few times, now.

But, just like all those times before, she hesitated for too long.

And Max eventually broke the eye contact to sit up, and shake her head.

_Idiot._

Well.

She could at least keep the conversation going.

The silence had gone on for long enough.

“Did you enjoy last night?”

Max looked back and smiled warmly.

“Of course I did, Clo.”

_Of course I did, Clo._

_Of course._

Chloe realized she was already over-analyzing everything Max said, and had to consciously try to stop that.

Max continued after a little pause,

“What are you thinking about doing today?”

Chloe raised an eyebrow.

At least the change in topic gave her something _else_ to think about.

She didn’t think Max would be around for all that long.

Before, she always had to go fuck off to do more Jedi stuff.

Even on her day “off”.

Now, Chloe wanted to know.

“Don’t you have shit to do?”

Max frowned, slightly.

She had this look of concentration on her face.

She looked to the floor, and stood up.

“No. I got a whole week to do what I want.”

Chloe blinked.

She didn’t know all that much about the Jedi, but she was pretty sure vacations weren’t part of the gig.

Along with the earlier, ‘ _You were right, the Jedi are awful’_ -shtick, it was becoming increasingly hard to ignore the part of Chloe’s mind screaming at her that something was wrong.

That Max had sacrificed too much.

That she had gone too far.

But.

Chloe was at least _trying_ to shove those anxieties away.

Max _just_ cured her of a terminal disease.

The _least_ Chloe could do is give her distance when she needed it.

And make this time together as enjoyable as possible.

“Then what are you doing getting out of bed? Be a lame-ass for a little while and chill.”

The words made Max smile.

She sat back down on the bed, and then laid on her back.

She looked over to Chloe, again.

“I guess I can do that.”

She then looked up to Chloe’s ceiling and just sighed deeply.

She closed her eyes.

“It’s been a while since I could just lay down and do … nothing.”

Chloe grinned.

“Well, you can learn from the pros, while you’re here.”

Max quietly laughed.

Her smile was so warm.

So genuine.

So happy.

She was so pretty when she smiled like that.

_Stop that._

Chloe forced her mind in another direction.

It created some silence while Max considered what Chloe had to say, but that was okay.

Silence around Max never felt awkward or tense.

Eventually, after a minute or so, Max started,

“Is that old crashed ship still in the forest?”

Chloe blinked.

She thought about it for a few moments.

“Dunno. Haven’t been there in a while. I doubt it’s gone anywhere, though.”

Max hummed thoughtfully.

“We should go there.”

She paused.

“Obviously, we won’t be playing pirates, but …”

Chloe thought about _that_ for a few moments, too.

She liked the idea, she decided.

“Kickass.”

 

The forest was just beyond their neighborhood.

The ship, just a little way past that.

No one would miss them for the while they’d be out there.

Chloe tried to keep her anxious side at bay.

Max deserved better.  

\---

“I need your attack delayed a week.”

In these robes, talking over this hologram, Palpatine modulated his voice to be much lower and scratchier to be harder to identify.

In these moments, he spirited himself away from prying eyes and recording devices.

They didn’t need to see what he had to do.

The indecipherable bug creatures on the other end of the hologram flitted in a flurry of activity.

He frowned, but it’s not like they could see it.

And even if they did, they were just dumb bugs.

They probably wouldn’t even understand it.

Eventually, the bug responsible for translating calmed down enough.

But its pale imitation of the basic common language shared among species always got on Palpatine’s nerves.

“Our deal. Clear. Attack … next moon. Hyooooo-man target planet.”

Palpatine sighed wearily.

“I know what our deal was. I’m changing the terms. Next week.”

Max’s change of plan was threatening to ruin his. It had to come a week later.

The bugs on the other end exploded in violent activity for a short while, _again_.

Once _again,_ Palpatine had to agonizingly wait for these dumb creatures to realize that he couldn’t make out a word of this.

But once more, the bug responsible for translating realized its duty, and continued,

“No deal. Cannot wait. Jedi peace accord. Too soon.”

Then, the transmission ended abruptly.

Palpatine quietly stewed in annoyance while he attempted to figure out how to salvage this situation.

If their attack came before he got the authorization of force he needed, it would be devastating.

Max’s testimony would be essential in getting that authorization of force.

Without it, he wouldn’t be able to show what military might could do and how necessary it was.

But.

Perhaps such a ruthless attack with no quick recourse might show the very same thing.

And it might further show how naïve the Jedi were to even try to seek peace with such _godforsaken_ creatures in the first place.

Palpatine sighed.

He still didn’t like the idea of slowly losing control over his plan.

But at least this wouldn’t be ruinous to the larger plan behind it.

Depending on the planet they picked, it might even be a good boon.

He smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


	6. War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe is afraid.
> 
> Max pushes herself.
> 
> It's over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content notice: This is the most graphically violent chapter. There is blood and death.

Max and Chloe finished climbing out of the old, abandoned ship.

This had been here for at least as long as their childhood, but the technology inside looked even older.

It probably wasn’t the safest place to be as young kids.

Chloe wasn’t a usual child.

Max liked the feeling of grass compressing underneath her shoes.

But Chloe suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.

“Dude.”

Her voice was as suddenly drained of color, and became distant and breathless.

Max blinked, and looked to her.

Then she followed her eyes.

They were both now looking at a massive plume of angry black smoke, billowing from off in the distance.

They could only make out a little bit of it in this clearing that housed the ship, but it was more than enough to be concerning.

Chloe paused further, and looked around.

After she got her bearings,

“ _Fuck_ , that’s about where my house is.”

Max blinked,

“Chloe, I’m sure it’s ---“

But Chloe was already taking off at a sprint towards the smoke.

Max sighed.

At least this wasn’t like in their childhood, where Chloe obviously outclassed her in physique.

Max’s Jedi training afforded her quite a bit more physical fitness than she would have sought on her own volition.

She ran after Chloe.

She could keep up this time.

Max tried,

“Chloe, slow down, it can’t be ---“

But Chloe wasn’t hearing a word of it,

“—Fuck that.”

Max just accepted that Chloe had to see for herself she was overreacting.

They made it to the edge of the forest.

Neither had slowed down once the entire way here.

The edge of the forest was slightly inclined from the suburbs and housing that Chloe lived in.

Max used to live here, too.

 

_Oh, fuck._

 

Max realized that Chloe wasn’t overreacting.

They both stopped dead as they looked at the scene.

Tons of the houses here were destroyed, and the ones that weren’t were set ablaze.

This is where the smoke that they saw came from.

But on the horizon, there were other plumes of smoke.

And in the sky, dozens of obvious war ships.

Only they weren’t republic.

This was bad.

“Fuck! No!”

Chloe had placed her hands up behind her head.

She kicked at some of the ground in front of her.

Her voice sounded high-pitched and unbalanced.

Max was breathing more severely than she should have been.

“Maybe ---“

She still couldn’t get a word in edge-wise, though.

Chloe immediately started down the incline towards the streets below.

Max’s instinct was telling her that it was dangerous to be there, now.

But what could she do?

She wasn’t about to let Chloe go get herself killed.

Reluctantly, Max followed after her.

Maybe they’d be able to find their parents and make it to the spacesport to escape.

There had to be some kind of escape setup, right?

 

They ran some more.

The slight ache in Max’s soles told her it had been at least a few miles of running, now.

They stopped in front of Chloe’s house.

Just an hour or so ago, this house, and the entire neighborhood, was pristine.

Now, half of the house was demolished, and the other half set alit in a wicked, all-consuming fire.

“Fuck!”

Chloe collapsed onto her knees.

She sniffled.

Max hesitated, looking at the flickering flames.

It’s not as though they had any answers for her.

But maybe they’d have taunts for her, instead.

Just when she thought her life was getting back together.

Max gently walked next to Chloe.

“Chloe …”

Chloe pulled some grass up with her hands and looked up to Max.

Her eyes were red and puffy.

“They can’t be dead … They can’t …”

Max sighed.

“I don't see any bodies around. I think they escaped before … this … all happened.”

Chloe frowned.

“And they didn’t tell us?”

Max shook her head.

“They probably didn’t know where we went.”

Max didn’t know, exactly, how she was managing to stay so calm about all of this.

Logically, she should be as upset as Chloe was, if not more so.

Her parents lived around here, too.

Whatever happened to Chloe’s most likely happened to hers.

But for some reason, she just felt _nothing._

Just numb.

Maybe it was shock.

Chloe punched at the ground in her frustration.

She then sighed, and slowly stood up.

“I guess it won’t do us much good to just sit around here…”

Max looked to some of the other fires around, progressing at an alarming rate.

“No, I wouldn’t think so. We should ---“

Max heard a sound she couldn’t quite describe, and then Chloe screamed.

Max’s head snapped around to look at the source of the noise.

There was some horrifying, large, bug-like creature.

It had several rows of arms, and shiny skin that reflected off the orange and red hues of the fires around it sickeningly.

One of its hands was being used to hold Chloe up by her long hair.

It hissed and clicked, but didn’t produce any words that Max could understand.

“MAX!”

Chloe sounded quite distraught. To say the least.

Max’s fists clenched.

“Let her go!”

She said it as forcefully as she could.

The creature hissed and clicked some more.

It extended a series of wings from its back.

Max blinked.

It was going to fly?

Shit.

It then raised up a blaster in one of its hands.

Max’s survival instinct kicked in faster than her thought process did.

She raised one of her hands up, and projected some force at it.

She aimed it at its head.

But her stress was severe.

The thought of this _thing_ flying off with Chloe was terrifying.

And the cosmic unfairness of everything was weighing down on her, again.

So when her force collided with its face, she didn’t get a pushing or a pulling.

Instead, its face crumpled inwards.

It had just a brief moment of violent and pained hissing and screeching, before its face seemed to disappear entirely. Just squished out of existence.

Max was speechless.

The violent attack to its face caused a cascade of blood.

Some of which ended up on Chloe.

Who screamed and kicked back at the lifeless creature.

Thankfully, this was enough to have its body release her hair, and fall back to the floor.

She fell onto her knees.

And looked up to Max, horrified.

Max still had her hand extended, and felt like she still couldn’t process what had just happened.

“Max …”

Chloe’s words kicked her out of her stupor.

She looked down to Chloe and slowly allowed her hand to fall down.

She tried to smile, since Chloe seemed mostly unharmed.

But Chloe’s mouth just gaped.

Chloe raised a hand up to cover her own mouth.

Max blinked.

Chloe wasn’t happy to see her.

Chloe wasn’t relieved that she had been saved.

Max had seen this emotion before.

She had seen it so many times recently when she used her abilities.

 

Chloe wasn’t happy.

She was afraid.

 

“Your eyes …”

Chloe managed, after lowering her hand.

Max blinked again.

Now was really not the time for this, though.

She looked around, and was only slightly relieved that there were no more creatures like that immediately around them.

“Chloe, please, we need to –“

“--- **Max**."

Chloe’s voice was still thick, and still horrified.

Scaring Chloe was painful to Max on a level she didn’t know was possible.

When she looked back forward, she just sighed.

“Chloe … please. I didn’t --- I don’t …”

But she didn’t have the words.

She didn’t know how to excuse the violence within her abilities anymore.

She didn’t know how to tell Chloe that she had abandoned the Jedi code entirely.

And how she wasn’t a Jedi anymore.

Chloe raised both of her hands to just cover her face, and entirely broke down, emotionally.

_Fuck._

This was bad.

Max opened her mouth to say something ---

But she felt a blaster round collide with her.

Her cognition recognized this as a stunning round.

That was about the last coherent thought she had before she fell to the floor.

And closed her eyes.

 

Sometime later, Max woke up with an awful headache.

“Chloe.”

The words came out before she even finished realizing that she had woken up.

Or understanding all of what happened.

She tried to sit up but ---

Her head immediately collided with a hard surface just above her.

She tried to raise a hand up to rub at that ache she had just created but ---

Her hands were compelled together, with thick, heavy metal around her wrists.

She opened her eyes.

Mostly darkness.

There were metallic bars on one side of her, and some kind of material all along the other walls.

She was on what had to have been the least comfortable bed in the world.

_Fuck._

She was in a slave container, she realized.

These extremely claustrophobic conditions were to pack in as many slaves as possible.

Was this a ship, though?

Was she already off her home planet?

Despite her mind screaming at her in a dozen different directions, Max closed her eyes and tried to relax.

To try and listen for the quiet hum of spaceship generators and engines.

A violent bump and jolt upwards after a few moments told her she wasn’t on a spaceship.

Probably a crawler, of some kind.

Max started to hyperventilate, after that.

What could she do?

She had to get out of here.

She had to find Chloe, and her parents, and her own parents, and ---

Max brought her hands together and sighed severely again.

Freaking out wasn’t going to help anything.

If the Jedi had taught her _anything_ , it was that she needed to stay as calm as she could.

And bide her time for an opening.

She didn’t know what that could possibly look like, but she did know that her captors weren’t going to be expecting her to be force-sensitive.

Not without a lightsaber on her.

When she had managed to calm herself down a little bit, she remembered how she got here.

And the slightly bloodied, mostly horrified look Chloe had on her.

When Chloe realized that Max wasn’t the same person she had known.

When Chloe realized that Max had gone too far.

 

Somehow, Max had managed to do the impossible, and make the person who trusted her the most fearful of her.

 

It was the most painful realization Max had had in her life.

More so than the wound she had received on her face.

More so than the realization that her parents were either dead or enslaved.

It just wasn’t fair.

Max had tried so hard.

What was she, anymore?

Was she still a good person?

Was she, ever?

 

Max didn’t have the answer for sure.

But she had a feeling she knew what it was.

And at least it kept her from freaking out.

Instead, it just sapped the will to live out of her.

And left her mindlessly staring at the nothing above her.

 

She wasn’t a good person, anymore.

She killed something without a second thought.

All she did was make people afraid her.

The aches in her face from how she had woken up and fallen earlier didn’t seem to matter, anymore.

They were there, but kind of abstract, now.  

Nothing seemed to matter, anymore.

 

Sometime later still, the space around her became eerily quiet.

She heard the violent sound of metal clanging against metal.

“No, please, I did --- “

Someone begging.

For what, Max didn’t know.

Another thud.

Groaning.

Hissing and clicking.

Shuffling of chains and more metal.

Then silence.

The cycle repeated itself a few times.

Some fearful voice would beg.

A thud.

They’d groan.

Something – one of those awful bugs Max eventually realized – would start clicking and hissing at them.

Then they’d start moving, somehow, and their restraints were making that noise.

Then quiet.

Suddenly, the bars next to her cell lowered, and more light poured in.

It was blinding.

One of those terrible bugs peered in.

Max frowned, but didn’t have words to offer it.

It grasped at her arm and forcefully dragged her out.

She fell to the floor rather unceremoniously.

The fact that there was metal down here wasn’t helping a damn thing.

She groaned out of agony before she could help it.

But then the disgusting thing kicked at her, and her arms were being compelled upwards.

Thoughtlessly, Max got onto her knees, and was pulled up to a standing position.

Hissing, clicking.

Not that she could make out a word of it.

Slowly, she opened her eyes.

She was in a line, of some sort.

The metallic restraints along her wrists had chains attaching her to the person in front of her.

Probably to similar restraints they had along their own wrists.

Max realized now that there were dull aches all along her body.

She had probably been mistreated the entire way here.

She looked around.

Some kind of even larger cell.

There were metallic bars a few feet in front of her.

But the gate to them had been opened, and the line was leading out into a hall way of some sort.

All along the cell’s walls in here were tiny little tombs, lined with similar metallic bars.

Slaves were being pulled out of the tombs and thrown onto the floor to be added to this line.

This was bad.

The line moved slowly, but it moved consistently.

In this down time, Max thought about escape.

If she still had her light saber, she could cut these restraints clean off.

The bugs seemed to be entirely reliant on blaster fire.

She could deflect that easily.

But she didn’t have her light saber anymore.

Max sighed softly.

Because she wasn’t a Jedi anymore.

The line moved out of the hall way.

There was a ramp leading down, into the outside.

Then again, what would escaping even do for her?

All Max had done in the past month or so was make people afraid of her and hurt them.

Even after literally saving her best friend’s life, she couldn’t help but fuck that up, too.

Maybe she’d be better off here.

At least this way, she wouldn’t hurt anyone.

She wouldn’t make anyone afraid.

She was down the ramp, now.

Max recognized this part of her home world as being close to where she was picked up from.

Still in the more rural areas.

She looked around, again.

Lots of the surrounding buildings were completely razed.

And yet, very few bodies were on the floor.

These creatures must have been organized and attacked quickly to avoid dealing with any kind of local militia.

Off in the distance, she heard all manner of blaster fire and explosives.

Probably more buildings being destroyed.

She looked forward, again.

This slave line was being fed into another ramp going into a large passenger ship.

Max frowned.

If she _was_ going to escape, she didn’t have a lot of time to do it.

She looked around a second time.

This time, she noticed a few republic soldiers in a defensive position, dug into the ground slightly.

They were skirmishing ineffectually with the bugs.

From the position they were in, Max hazard a guess that they were trying to assault this passenger ship.

There couldn’t have been more than a handful of them.

Her frown deepened.

Is that all the republic had to offer to stop this onslaught?

She was about half way to the ship, now.

She bit her lip.

She examined the group of soldiers more carefully and ---

She spotted the body of a Jedi.

His light saber was still on the ground.

It almost blended into it.

Max carefully looked around again to see where all the guards were.

There were only one or two directly watching the slave line.

If she got rid of them, and freed up the republic soldiers, they might be emboldened enough to push on the ship.

But.

She just sighed wearily.

What if she failed?

What if when she got to them, all they saw was the same monster that kept intimidating everyone?

What if, what if, what if?

 

The pained cry of a soldier kicked Max out of her thoughts.

She looked to them once more.

They were in trouble.

They were losing the skirmish.

If Max did nothing now, she’d probably feel responsible for it.

Fuck.

This was so unfair.

Fuck it.

As Max’s feet touched the metal of the ramp going onto the ship, she looked back to the body of the fallen Jedi.

She compelled his light saber into her hands.

A party trick.

But one, she was told, would eventually save her life.

She closed her eyes.

She didn’t try to calm herself or focus.

Instead, she thought of how fucked everything was.

And how nothing seemed like it went her way.

She thought of the gentle pulses of agony from the aches all along her body.

And she remembered that searing pain from that strike to her face.

 

She turned on her light saber.

 

She cut her restraints off.

 

She launched herself towards the first guard.

 

Its shots went towards the sky.

 

This time, when she swung her weapon, she didn’t hesitate.

 

This time, she felt no remorse when the creature made its pained sounds of death.

She didn’t rush towards the second guard.

She walked towards it.

She allowed each of its shots to skewer to the floor ineffectually.

She didn’t even know if these bugs could feel fear.

But if any creature in this universe deserved to have fear instilled into them, it was these things.

When she was close, it tried to fly away.

But she projected her force towards it.

And it too died.

She didn’t dwell on it.

She heard a chorus of hissing and chattering bugs.

Looking towards the source revealed three of them coming down from the ship’s ramp.

She paused.

They raised their blasters.

They fired in unison.

Not a single shot landed on her.

She waited until they stopped, confused.

She projected her force towards the left-most one.

And it too, died.

More bugs came.

But.

They, too, died.

 

Eventually, they stopped coming.

\---

One of the oldest legends that every young person head was of the Sith.

They were the perpetual enemy to the Jedi.

Consumed by rage, they were supposed to be mindless slaughter beasts.

Heartless.

Soulless.

Warren breathed in deeply as he stood up from his ground cover.

He had just watched Max rather mercilessly dispose of an entire battalion of the hostile bug creatures.

And now she was just standing still.

Looking down.

Breathing hard.

The old legends of Sith was on his mind as he approached her.

They were said to fight with no limitations.

They didn’t hesitate in killing.

And didn’t stop until there was nothing left.

Warren had just watched a Jedi fight, and fall, to the very same creatures.

Max didn’t fight like that Jedi did.

Carefully, Warren came to a stop just a few feet shy of her.

“Max …”

The most telling indication of the Sith was what the Jedi called corruption.

The earliest stages were vicious, yellow eyes.

Warren’s breath hitched far up and away when Max looked to him.

And those vicious, yellow eyes felt though they were piercing straight through him.

But she didn’t look at him long.

She went back to looking straight ahead.

Waiting for more bugs to come out.

He took a few steps closer.

“What are you doing here?”

He tried again, trying his best to keep his voice steady.

He was nervous, maybe even a little afraid.

He knew perfectly well what being a Sith meant.

They were supposed to bring an end to the republic.

To destroy the Jedi Order entirely.

As they had almost done, so very many years ago.

Max spoke, but she didn’t look at him.

Her voice was uneven, and her heavy breathing frequently interrupted it.

“This is … my home world. These creatures are …”

She couldn’t finish the sentence.

Perhaps it was just too painful.

Warren could certainly _hear_ all the pain in her voice.

This wasn’t, exactly, what he expected a Sith to be like.

She sighed severely.

“All I’m good at is … killing things and … making people afraid me. I might as well …”

She swallowed,

“Use it on these … _things_ …”

Warren blinked.

This sounded even _less_ like what he expected a Sith to be like.

She sounded as afraid of the power she just exhibited as everyone else around her was.

He took a few steps closer.

“I’m not afraid of you.”

He projected his voice as loudly and confidently as he could.

He wasn’t sure how much of a lie it was.

That got her attention, though.

She turned to face him fully, and look him in the eyes.

Warren had to admit that those eyes were desperately intimidating.

To reinforce what he was saying, he put his rifle on his shoulder, holding it with just one hand.

And he took of his helmet to hold it in his second hand.

Now, he was just a few steps away.

While her eyes were vicious, they were also trembling.

Wavering.

He knew she wasn’t heartless.

“Why not?”

But she didn’t seem to believe him, after studying his face.

He sighed and closed his eyes.

When he opened them again,

“Because I know you’re on my side.”

He took a step closer, still.

She frowned, but then paused in consideration.

This felt like progress.

He continued,

“And because you’re on my side, you’re going to help me save these people, right?”

She looked behind herself, to the slave line heading into the ship.

Of course, every single one of them were looking at the scene between the two of them.

They’d probably been watching her the entire time.

Her ruthless dispatch.

Warren could see one of them flinch under her gaze.

She looked back to Warren.

Her face was scrunched up, conflicted.

“I … I can’t help these people. They’re afraid of me.”

Another step.

He was basically adjacent to her, now.

He knew fully well that all of them heard the same legends he did, as a kid.

But he also knew that they didn’t know Max like he did.

They didn’t see her smile, or laugh, and they couldn’t hear her conflict over her power.

All they saw was those eyes.

And the blood on her.

“Please, Max. We need you.”

He looked back to the little hole that his squad had dug out,

“We’re down to two. If reinforcements come, we’ll be wiped out, and …”

He looked back to the slave line, and allowed the sentence to just die off.

Max closed her eyes and sighed heavily.

She was quiet for a while.

When she opened her eyes again, they were a bit less vicious.

But no less intimidating.

“Okay.”

 

Warren expected a lot of things when he enlisted in the republic military.

He never expected to see a Sith hand over her weapon to a soon-to-be-slave.

So that they could free themselves from their bondage.

He never expected to be working with a Sith.

To save a bunch of civilians.

\---

Max finished dealing with the last of the bugs in the ship.

When she stepped onto the ramp leading out, there was a loose collection of people standing by the edge of the ramp on the outside.

And they started to cheer as she came into view.

She blinked.

She didn’t know how to handle this.

Soon, Warren came up the ramp, smiling, and handed her back her light saber.

The one she recently acquired, anyway.

“Thanks, Max. We really need more heroes.”

_Heroes._

Max carefully took the offered light saber and examined it.

 

She smiled.

 

She then looked off into the distance.

There were still plenty of more ships to attack.

More people to save.

Maybe Chloe or her parents would be in one of them.

 

Warren cleared his throat.

She looked to him.

“The captain would like to speak with you.”

\---

Max focused on her anger.

It kept her from over-thinking things.

Which she knew she was definitely going to do, otherwise.

The implications of what everything meant.

The way Chloe looked at her.

The loss of her parents.

Max didn’t want to think about that, right now.

So she didn’t.

It was easier, that way.

 

These bugs were in her way.

But not for long.

 

“Max.”

Warren’s voice.

It sounded concerned.

Max stepped off the ramp leading out of the most recent ship she had cleaned up.

She didn’t look at him, though.

Instead, she started to walk towards her next objective.

Warren caught up, and tried again,

“Max.”

This time, she gave him a sidelong look.

“I’m not done.”

Max’s tone was flat and unfeeling.

A little distant.

It gave Warren pause.

“It’s late. Aren’t you tired?”

Max shook her head.

She _was_ tired, but it was something she could easily ignore.

If she just focused.

“No.”

Warren frowned.

“What happened to your helmet?”

Max blinked, and looked forward again.

She’d been given a set of republic trooper armor for protection.

The captain insisted upon it, though Max thought it unnecessary.

“Bug crushed it.”

Warren’s face scrunched up in confusion.

Max clarified,

“ _Big_ bug crushed it.”

Warren sighed.

“And your hair …?”

Max shook her head.

“Blaster shot. Didn’t hit me. Ear feels a little funny, though.”

Warren blinked.

“Blaster shot.”

He repeated it, uselessly.

“Yeah.”

Warren then sighed, sped up a little bit to get in front of Max.

She stopped at this, and crossed her arms.

“You’re pushing yourself too hard.”

It was her turn to frown.

“That’s for me to decide. _Out of my way_.”

She pushed him aside and kept on walking.

He didn’t follow, this time.

Instead, he just weakly offered,

“What happened to the girl I met in the clearing?”

Max blinked again.

She thought about it, and stopped walking.

“What?”

Warren hesitated, but continued.

“You’re different, now. Would the people you’re trying so hard to save want to see you like this?”

Max clenched her fists.

She already knew the answer to that.

She turned on her heel and raised her hand up ---

“ _Shut up_.”

But Warren’s horrified expression was enough to give her pause.

She looked down to her hand.

What was she about to just do?

Kill him?

Hurt him?

For questioning her?

For getting in her way?

What would Chloe think if she saw that? Or this?

Max sighed wearily.

She closed her eyes, and slowly raised her hand up further to rub at the light saber wound on her face.

It was hardly the only wound on her face, now.

She continued to consider what was going on.

Max felt some of the anger bleed out of her.

And with it, some of the barrier she’d been using to isolate her mind from the emotional stress of the situation.

She sniffled.

“I don’t know. I’m just trying … I just want …”

The shortness of her voice was gone, now.

It was more halting.

Wavering.

She couldn’t explain it.

She couldn’t explain it to Chloe.

And she wouldn’t be able to explain it, now, to Warren.

He’d be just as horrified as Chloe.

Max would have officially fucked up the last of her relationships.

When she opened her eyes again, though, Warren didn’t look horrified anymore.

He looked concerned.

He walked closer.

“I know this is … difficult … on you. I can’t imagine my home world being invaded …”

He smiled gently.

“But you’ve already done so much. This is, what, ship number six?”

She had thought this was number five, but maybe she was already losing count.

Warren continued,

“Let’s get some rest. We’ll pick it up in the morning.”

Max thought about it a bit more.

She looked back to the path she was going to walk.

The path that would require her to consume herself further in her rage, just to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

She looked back to him.

The path that would allow her to breathe, and stop.

One path offered her a slim, but non-zero possibility of saving her family, and Chloe.

But would she even want to save them if she was like … _this_?

Max sighed.

She really _was_ tired.

“Okay.”

 

Max didn’t rest easily.

As the rest of her anger left her, the disquieting, thorny thoughts took its place.

The look on Chloe’s face.

The implications of what it all meant.

Her parents.

She cried.

She fell asleep, eventually.

But not until she had felt everything.

 

When she woke up the next morning, she forced herself up and out of bed as quickly as possible.

She could ignore the aches and pains in her body if she just focused.

But when she got outside, all the war ships were gone.

The attack was over.

It was over.

Over.

Max did nothing, for a little while after that.

But then she made her way back to the bed she had slept on, and numbly sat down on it.

She had nothing to do, now.

It was over.

Nothing to distract her from the consequences and implications.

 

_Fuck._

 

Eventually, a voice interrupted her stewing,

“You look like shit. You should see the doctor.”

Not Warren’s voice, this time.

Some random trooper.

This was a barracks, after all.

Even if kind of an impromptu one, given the circumstances.

Max looked up, and her eyes narrowed.

Of course, he flinched.

Max felt her anger rising.

This was so unfair.

It was over.

 

But.

She sighed deeply, and tried to calm herself down.

He didn’t deserve her anger.

It wasn’t his fault.

That it was over.

“I’ll … do that.”

Perhaps her aches could be soothed that way.

With a groan, she stood up.

And tried to find her way.


	7. Sith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Palpatine picks up the pieces.
> 
> Max is resolved.
> 
> Somewhere, someone's being a huge bitch.

“You did not. Jedi say. Too many lost.”

Palpatine did his best to not sound that annoyed at the disgusting bug creatures.

“ _I_ was very clear that you should attack later.”

The stupid creatures went in a flurry of activity again.

He clenched his fists.

Eventually,

“Too many lost.”

He nodded.

“And I am _deeply_ disappointed so many of your kin had to die. But this cannot work unless you listen to exactly what I say.”

He paused for a moment.

“I will have detailed battle plans sent to you within the next hour. There is still much to be done before you can free the rest of your species from republic control. Will you follow it, _exactly_?”

There was less activity, this time.

The creatures looked to one another.

“We will obey.”

Palpatine smiled.

Getting what you want is always a matter of knowing when to push, and when to relent.

\---

“You’re back!”

Max was pretty sure Palpatine’s smile was unnerving, now.

It felt painted-on or something.

Maybe she was just in a pissy mood.

It was a consequence of the way she was avoiding having to think too much.

“The planet got invaded.”

Max frowned.

“Everyone I cared about got killed or enslaved.”

Palpatine closed his eyes and sighed.

He clasped his hands together, and slowly opened his eyes again.

“I told you that would happen. You can’t just rush off to save your friend all by yourself. I needed your testament in congress to get much action.”

Max blinked.

She frowned further.

That wasn’t how that conversation happened, did it?

Max crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat.

This chair was comfortable.

“What? I didn’t know that would happen. You didn’t tell me.”

Palpatine just smiled again and slowly shook his head.

“I’m sorry dear, but you’re simply misremembering it.”

He sighed and stood up, walking away from his chair to look out the windows behind his desk.

The windows were massive, easily scaling the full height of the walls.

He crossed his arms there.

Max paused in getting up to follow him.

She was replaying the conversation they had had in her mind, and trying to see if her memory was somehow faulty.

After a few moments, she sighed wearily and stood up, walking to his side and looking out the window with him.

She kept her arms crossed.

“I… I don’t remember that.”

She wasn’t about to call him a liar.

But it was confusing.

He said it with such confidence, earlier.

He hummed flatly.

“Perhaps it has something to do with the other reports I’ve gotten …?”

He looked sideways to her,

“I hear you’ve been quite active on the ground, there. A real hero, they might say.”

Max’s face softened up a little bit, and she nodded.

“I did what I could.”

Palpatine nodded as well.

“And you killed many.”

Max hesitated.

“I did.”

Palpatine looked forward again.

“Do you regret it?”

Max sighed and closed her eyes.

She raised a hand up to rub at her light saber wound.

In the intervening days, a lot of the other wounds she had endured had healed up.

This one was here to say, though.

Forever a scar.

“No.”

Max said, a bit unsure, after some thoughtful consideration.

“They deserved it for what they did.”

Palpatine smiled softly.

“That is the difference between the Jedi and you, you know.”

Max turned her head to look at him properly.

Her hands just fell to her sides.

“What do you mean?”

He looked sideways to her, but back forward before he continued speaking,

“There is little room for justifiable death in the world of the Jedi. Certainly, if we had sent a Master Jedi, she would not have done one tenth of what you did.”

She looked forward as well.

She considered what he had to say.

It took her a minute or so to digest.

“I guess so.”

She relented, but still unsure of her words.

He just nodded.

“That is why you are not a Jedi. You are willing to do what is necessary to save your friend, even when it is quite foolish to do so.”

She frowned, slightly.

Going down to just try and save Chloe and her family _did_ sound like something she’d do, but …

“I still can’t … I still don’t …”

She couldn’t find the words to express her discomfort at this change in how she thought of their earlier conversation.

She sighed after some hesitation,

“Are you sure that I did that? I could have sworn I was going to take some time off to relax with Chloe.”

He hummed flatly.

He turned his entire body to face her, now.

She reciprocated.

He smiled warmly, again.

She still couldn’t see any deception or chicanery on his features.

“Maxara. I have no reason to lie to you. I know it’s been very difficult for you to deal with this unpleasant business.”

He closed his eyes and sighed.

Max kind of started to hate how often people were using the ‘very difficult for you’ line on her.

“I wouldn’t entirely trust my faculties after such a stressful event, either. If it is really such a bother to you, I can ask my security team to go through old footage …”

Max blinked.

He spoke so confidently.

And now, he was willing to inconvenience himself and a bunch of others to try and show her the truth?

That’s not something a liar would do.

And she really didn’t have any reason to distrust him.

Maybe she was just misremembering things.

The specifics of the battles she had fought were already a little vague in her mind.

“No, it’s … it’s fine.”

She turned to face the window, again.

This was a silly thing to get into a disagreement about, anyway.

What it matter if she was just being a little selfish in trying to save her friends and family?

He faced forward as well.

“Very well. The offer will stand for as long as you need it to.”

He breathed in deep.

“Now. I really must insist that you help me. I’ve been more than accommodating for you.”

Max nodded, gently.

“Because of your delay, we were unable to send much to help your home planet. Perhaps with your testimony, we could have avoided it entirely.”

She frowned, slightly.

“But that is in the past.”

He smiled warmly again.

“And I do not dwell in the past or deal in grudges. All that I ask of you now is your loyalty.”

His expression soured.

His voice, too, became more distant, and mournful.

“We are just beginning some very dark times. I need to be able to rely on you to help, if we’re to ensure the stability of our republic.”

Max sighed.

She did feel bad about asking so much of him, earlier.

Particularly if he had tried to warn her of the consequences.

Maybe her tunnel-vision about saving Chloe was just too severe or something.

“Okay. I’ll do my best.”

Palpatine smiled.

“Good. Go down the hall and to the right. You need to be more presentable before you appear before the senate. My stylist will take care of you.”

Max nodded.

“Okay.”

She turned on her heel, crossed her arms, and walked out of his office.

She walked slowly, while she followed his directions.

She had a lot to think about, now.

And she didn’t care if it took her a little while to get there.

 

The senate was a confusing, massive place.

There had to have been thousands of people in here.

It was like a huge egg, lined with hundreds upon hundreds of little individual stands.

And one massive stand, in the center.

That’s where Palpatine was.

It was so loud in here.

So many side conversations in so many different languages.

There was more diversity of life here than Max had ever seen before in her life.

Of course, that was the whole point of it.

Even someone as unpolitical as Max knew that.

 

“Honorable delegates of the senate…”

 

The cacophony of voices started to die down as Palpatine began to speak.

He gave considerable pause to allow them time to do so,

 

“We are gathered here in this special session for a very important, but disturbing reason.”

He sighed.

“Several your fellow senators have come forward with alarming information about our close Jedi companions.”

Max heard murmuring amongst the senators.

Palpatine waited until this too, died down.

“Senator Oovio, you have the floor. Please tell us what you have told me.”

One of the many inscrutably small stands lit up.

A creature beyond Max’s words began to speak.

At least it spoke basic.

 

Senator after senator, testimony after testimony went by.

Max was totally floored at the totality and sheer variety of evidence she was being assaulted with.

Tales of abusive Jedi.

Tales of extreme negligence.

Tales of corruption.

Of deceit, lies, trickery, and so much more.

Could it all be true?

She knew the Jedi were not perfect, but … this was a bit much to take in.

And it felt like so many people were involved with this.

They couldn’t all be making this up, could they?

It felt like half of the damn senate had testified before her name was called.

At least by then, she had recovered from her obvious shock.

She liked nothing about this dress or all of the makeup Palpatine’s stylist insisted upon.

But at least, now, this would be over with, soon.

Max looked down to her script.

She cleared her throat, and projected her voice loudly and clearly.

“Since I was taken from my home to train with the Jedi, I have faced constant emotional abuse.”

This didn’t _feel_ like a lie.

Not when she said it.

In a way, it was something of a revelation.

Even if they weren’t the words she would have used to describe the situation, they did seem shockingly accurate.

The rest of her script felt more-or-less the same way.

Some parts were exaggerations.

But they were exaggerated in such a way that even if she didn’t _directly_ experience it, she could have imagined another Jedi had.

So even those little bits and pieces didn’t feel like lies.

After she finished, she sat down.

Her stand was shared with a few other senators.

One of them tapped her on the shoulder.

She looked to it.

She really ought to learn more names of these creatures.

So she didn’t sound like such an ignorant human.

“Shame what they’ve done to you.”

Max nodded wearily.

She looked off into the vast empty space of the senate building.

“Yeah.”

Her voice came out like a sigh.

 

There were still more testimonies to go through, somehow.

Max didn’t know why _her_ piece was so important to him.

Perhaps because it was the only one from a former Jedi.

 

Eventually, there were no more testimonies to go through.

Palpatine sighed severely.

The murmuring amongst the senators had started as more and more evidence started to mount, and by now it was quite loud.

“Now then …”

Even though Palpatine gave them plenty of time to calm down, they still wouldn’t not.

“Order!”

With some reluctance, this finally got them to quiet down.

He continued.

“I know this is all a lot to take in, and is very troubling.”

He shook his head.

“I work very closely with several Jedi masters and knights. It is difficult for me to believe all of what I have heard.”

He paused.

The senate was eerily silent.

“But we cannot allow this to go on. Effective immediately,”

The senators started to speak amongst themselves, and the volume was almost deafening by the time he finished,

“I am suspending all Jedi interactions with the Republic until further notice. I will be appointing a special prosecutor to look into these claims and determine their veracity. I ---”

He had more to say, but there was little point in speaking further, with how loud and boisterous the crowd had gotten.

“Order!”

The first try, it didn’t work.

Neither the second, nor third, nor fourth.

If anything, this just made the crowd of senators louder.

 

Max had heard enough at this point, though.

She made her way back to her apartment to get this stupid dress and all this makeup off.

She thought about all the accusations made, tonight.

She thought of the random odd rumors that Chloe had murmured to her conspiratorially.

Almost every single one she had brought up was validated by at _least_ one senator, if not several.

How could she have been so blind?

How could she have not seen so much of this going around her?

How could they have done this to her?

How could they have done this to the galaxy, and the republic?

A hot shower wasn’t even enough to dislodge all the thorny thoughts in her mind.

It helped, though.

When she stepped out of the shower, she walked over to her mirror and sink and got her comb.

She started to comb hair along her sides that didn’t exist anymore.

Just out of habit.

It took her a moment to remember, with the mirrors all fogged up, and everything.

During the fighting on her home planet, she had almost gotten hit directly by a blaster shot, while she was distracted.

Instead, it just clipped along the side of her head, and burned off a substantial chunk of her hair around her left ear.

Palpatine’s stylist salvaged this by simply shaving off most of her hair.

It was a military-like buzzcut, except for the top.

She didn’t touch that, at all.

Max combed what remained of her hair.

The fog on the mirror finally cleared up.

She felt the wind knocked of her when she got a look at herself, though.

 

This Max didn’t look anything like her self-image.

 

Carefully, Max raised a hand up to touch along her face.

As though she didn’t believe the image she was seeing, and was hoping to catch the mirror as some kind of trick.

Even just the haircut was enough to make her look totally different, especially when she parted her bangs to one side, instead of equally splitting them on either side of her face.

But there was the scar.

The large one.

The noticeable one.

And then there was the innumerable little ones.

They weren’t as noticeable, but had the overall effect of making her skin more uneven.

This is probably why the stylist insisted on so much makeup.

Max closed her eyes, and leaned over her sink.

 

So much had happened.

The world had been so unfair to her.

Her Chloe was gone.

Even if alive, she was doubtlessly mistrustful of who Max had become.

Her parents were either dead or enslaved.

Max didn’t even want to think how they’d respond if they saw what Max had to do.

The Jedi Order was a farce.

A big, fat, convenient lie.

Her home town was entirely razed, including her old home.

Everything Max had cared for or believed in was gone, now.

She felt a tear drop.

 

But then she clenched her fists.

Then she breathed in sharply.

That part of her was gone, now.

This was so unfair.

When she opened her eyes and looked back to the mirror, they weren’t red and puffy and threatening on tears.

She knew why.

The Max that would cry about these things was dead, now.

When not blue but yellow eyes pierced her own self, she wasn’t stunned.

Or afraid.

It was unexpected, but somehow, it just felt right.

She knew full well what those yellow eyes meant.

 _Sith_.

This person looking at her in the mirror looked nothing like Max used to.

But it felt like that’s how it should be.

Max shoved herself off her bathroom sink and walked into her bedroom.

She laid down on her bed, not bothering to even dress in a night gown or something, and found her crushed helmet.

The whole suit had been given to her as a kind of souvenir for her heroics.

This helmet, in particular, she kept going back to.

Running her fingers along it.

Feeling the distress along the metal, and the unnatural bent curves.

Max should have died when that creature stomped on her.

She closed her eyes.

Maybe she did.

Maybe her will to survive and correct these comic injustices had taken their toll.

Maybe she had pushed herself too hard with her anger.

But.

So long as she stayed frustrated.

So long as she kept fighting.

So long as she kept breathing.

She wouldn’t have to think about it.

She wouldn’t have to relive that look on Chloe’s face.

It was more comfortable, that way.

So that’s what she did.

 

The next morning, she was resolved when she walked into Palpatine’s office.

He looked up from his desk.

“Ah, there she is. Good morning.”

Max opened her mouth to say something.

She wanted to get right to it.

But.

“Good morning.”

She didn’t, quite yet.

Instead, she took a pleasant seat.

Then, she got right to it.

“I want to be in the republic military.”

She wanted to ensure that no one else went through what she did.

As much as she could, anyway.

Palpatine blinked, but then smiled.

“I see. You’ve already got something of a reputation for those stunts you’ve pulled on your home world… and your Jedi training should allow you to pass the physicals … hmm, yes.”

He seemed to think aloud for a few moments, before nodding gently.

“That can be arranged, I think. I would be glad to have you as an officer in our fine military.”

It was Max’s turn to blink.

“Officer? I just ---“

Palpatine just chuckled.

“Do not be modest, Maxara.”

She went silent in consideration.

He continued,

“You will do just fine. You’ve already inspired the troops who have witnessed your work, so says the reports I was delivered. That is exactly the kind of qualities we need from leaders.”

Max considered his words, but didn’t know if ‘inspire’ was the right word.

Still, he seemed quite made up on this, already.

Perhaps it was for the best.

Perhaps this would allow her to leverage her skills as efficiently as she could.

Max nodded.

“Okay, I guess.”

Palpatine’s face lit up.

But it kind of always did that.

“Wonderful!”

There were a few quiet moments after that.

They were both just thinking.

Eventually,

“Can I get another light saber?”

She’d lost the one she had borrowed from that fallen Jedi at some point.

Maybe one of the slaves she handed it to didn’t give it back.

Maybe she just misplaced it.

This made him frown.

Max shifted around in her seat.

“Why do you need a _Jedi_ weapon?”

Max paused again.

“It’s the only way I’ve learned how to fight and use my abilities.”

His frown deepened for a few moments.

Max didn’t like his stare when he wasn’t smiling.

It was uncomfortable.

But he eventually must have realized this, as his expression softened.

“Perhaps I can teach you what I know. Then you would not find it necessary to rely on a lightsaber.”

Max blinked.

Was he saying …?

Palpatine looked down, and fussed with some part of his desk.

He produced a lightsaber after some more faffing.

“In the meantime, have my old one, when I was your age.”

Max hesitated in taking it and imposing too much on him again, but his warm smile was back.

She took it and placed it on her lap.

She had lost her favorite jacket after the bugs had captured her, so she had no discrete places to hold one, anymore.

“Good, good.”

He clasped his hands together.

“To get you ready for your new position, I have some special jobs for you. It should get you up to speed in no time and allow you to blaze through officer school.”

Max was still looking down at the lightsaber.

“I …”

She looked back to him.

She breathed in deep.

“Okay.”

 

As part of these special jobs, Palpatine had a special suit of trooper armor made just for her.

It looked like most any other armor, but was colored pure black.

He said she needed to look distinctive.

Max didn’t know how distinctive trooper armor could really be.

But it was the least of her concerns, right now.

 

Max tore through her missions.

Maybe she was cut out for this, after all.

\---

Chloe woke up.

She immediately groaned and raised a hand up to try and rub at her forehead.

But that didn’t work.

There was something compelling her wrists together.

She opened her eyes, and blinked a couple dozen times, like she was trying on new ones.

_What?_

She looked down.

She was on a bench.

With heavy, metallic restraints along her wrists.

Binding them together.

There was a long chain binding those restraints to the wall.

_Oh._

Right.

She was a slave, now.

That thought process took some getting used to.

She just sighed, and frowned.

She looked around her surroundings a bit more.

She was in a nasty little cell.

It had hardly enough space for her to walk around in.

The rest of the room had only the most essentials for living.

A toilet.

A bed.

A sink.

“Are you going to stop fucking crying, now?”

Chloe frowned more deeply, and looked to the source of the voice.

On the far side of the bench she was sitting on, there was another woman.

In similar restraints.

She was looking away, but clearly talking to Chloe.

Not like there was anyone else around to talk to.

“What?”

The other woman sighed in exasperation.

Like Chloe’s ignorance on the subject was causing her physical pain, or something.

“You were crying. Like all damn night. Don’t you think this is hard enough without the waterworks?”

Chloe just scoffed.

If she _was_ crying, this woman had an awful lot of fucking nerve to complain about it.

Like being enslaved after your best friend turns into a Sith was just the most normal fucking thing in the world.

“Well _excuse me_ , princess.”

The woman hesitated.

She slowly looked to Chloe.

“How did you know I was royalty?”

Chloe blinked, and opened her mouth to say something, but.

The indecipherable skittering and screeching of one of those fucking bugs caught her ear.

“Shhh. Shut up.”

“ _Don’t you fucking tell me to –“_

The woman started, but herself went quiet when the bug came into view, just outside of their cell.

Chloe paid it her full attention.

Not that she wanted to look at these damn things.

But it was armed, and she wasn’t.

It carefully opened the cell door and walked up to the woman.

It made more noises, and pointed towards the door.

The woman didn’t move an inch.

Chloe cleared her throat.

“I think it wants it you to ---“

“I fucking _know_ what this shitstain wants. I’m not moving an inch.”

Chloe rolled her eyes again.

But then the creature made a clearly annoyed sound, and pulled out a blaster pistol.

 _Shit_.

This woman might get them both killed for her fucking arrogance.

She still didn’t move, though.

It pushed the barrel to her belly, and she just looked away.

Nothing.

The moments ticked by with Chloe’s heart going faster than she thought it should be.

The creature pulled the trigger.

But nothing happened.

Sensing an opening, the woman immediately launched her cuffed hands towards the pistol, and tried to wrangle it from the bug’s hands.

But she couldn’t, or at least, not in enough time.

The creature pulled the trigger a second time.

It didn’t malfunction, this time.  

The woman screeched.

And then slumped over.

“Fuck!”

Chloe said it before her mind could stop her.

The bug noticed her.

_Shit._

It started walking towards her.

_Shit shit shit._

It put the blaster to _her_ belly.

_Shit-shit-shit-shit-shit-shit ---_

Chloe shoved both of her hands forward,

“NO!”

But then there was silence.

Chloe had closed her eyes and scrunched up defensively, expecting a shot.

Not that it would do much against a blaster wound.

But nothing came.

No screeching.

No pain.

Instead, all that she heard and felt was the innumerable whispers of a thousand voices.

She opened her eyes wide.

The color was out of her world.

And in slow motion, the bug creature was starting to walk in reverse.

Chloe’s jaw dropped.

She watched, completely in awe, as it replaced its blaster on the woman’s belly.

She watched, completely in awe, as the round _came out_ of the woman’s belly, and her wound healed itself.

She watched, completely in awe, as the bug slowly walked back out of the cell, then locked the door again.

She watched, completely in awe, as it walked backwards out of sight.

She kept her hand up for a while.

The shock of the situation didn’t allow her to move an inch.

Eventually, though, there was an ache in her head that was inexplicable and piercing.

She started to raise her hand up further to rub at her forehead in a lame attempt to soothe it.

But it was too late.

She passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _  
> What if I’m wrong, what if I’ve lied  
>  What if I’ve dragged you here to my own dark night   
> And what if I know, what if I see   
> There is a crack run right down the front of me _
> 
> _What if they’re right, what if we’re wrong  
>  What if I’ve lured you here with a siren song?   
> _
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Let me know what you thought of the story in the comments below. As always, I love comments, and will try to read and reply to each and every one of them.


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